


The First Date

by LeftyTreble



Category: RWBY
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-02-01 03:46:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12696666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeftyTreble/pseuds/LeftyTreble
Summary: An awkward moment in the woods leads to a very interesting turnout for Ruby and Jaune, who unbeknownst to even themselves, have been waiting for just such a thing to happen. Follow along for all the awkwardness and adorable...ness that happens before Ruby and Jaune even have their first date!





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

  


Many would imagine that agility, grace, and strength, would all come naturally to a huntsman. In fact, many would imagine that those very things should be required of someone aspiring to hunt Grimm and in turn defend the people. None would imagine that, at one point, a slow, clumsy, and relatively speaking, weak, person could ever be charged with the great challenge of protecting the populus from the terror that are Grimm. Yet, here he was. Jaune Arc, the epitome of what huntsman and huntresses alike aspire to never be. And now, as he stood in the woods, sword in hand, shield poised, he looked stoic like any hero, and to Ruby, he looked just as capable as any other. He struck out at the air, slicing it in twain swiftly, and as artistically as a painter with a brush. Another strike. This one was just as quick, and before a second thought could be spent on the beauty of the advance, another strike lashed out at the invisible foe stood before Jaune.  


It was only until an hour later, that Jaune finally collapsed into sitting against the sturdy trunk of a tree. His breathing was slow and controlled, some of the color in his heated face began to fade slightly as he rested. And before long, Jaune was sleeping. Ruby watched this all, at first from standing several feet away behind an unusually thick tree, and now from her perch in a tree much closer than before. She noted that Jaune no longer listened to the recording he had of Pyrrha guiding him through his training. Now, his body guided itself, remembering the hours spent late at night, hidden away, training to the voice that had been eternalized in a scroll.  


It broke Ruby’s heart when she first found out, and although Jaune would insist that he was over it, she couldn’t help but feeling that it wasn’t completely true. As time had gone on, Ruby had backed off from interfering with Jaune’s late night training sessions, she didn’t want to interrupt what little time he spent with his thoughts and emotions, now resigning herself to the distant observation of a bird, perched upon a branch.  


“Ruby,” came an almost impossibly quiet voice. She looked around for the source, but could see no one in the immediate vicinity, then she noticed Jaune, now stood up and looking at her, “were you just going to watch me sleep all night?”  


Her cheeks found themselves feeling warmer, without permission, _traitorous cheeks_! She thought. She cleared her throat, not wanting to risk a shaky reply, “sorry Jaune, I just didn’t want to bother you,” it was true after all, though letting Jaune sleep so far away was probably not the smartest move, considering the beasts that could be lurking all around.  


“Right, but you could ‘not bother me’ without being perched in a tree like that,” he said, realizing then, that the seemingly infinite ruffles of her skirt did not conceal certain things that probably weren’t meant to be seen without explicit permission. His cheeks too, flushed slightly. Eyes cast downward, he carried on, “i-it’s actually kinda weird, u-uhm,” his voice cracked, “you should probably come down.”  


Ruby did as he said, landing in front of him with only the faintest thunk. His eyes were still trained on the grassy patches surrounding them, and Ruby found it to be quite odd. Before she could stop herself she stepped forward, bending down and looking up into his face, so that their noses were almost touching.  


“You okay, Jaune?” she asked, searching his face for any obvious signs of injury or distress. He hadn’t looked horribly worn out by his practice, though it was entirely possible that the cumulative stress of the past several months was finally getting to him. The time they had spent out travelling across Anima, was exciting to say the least, and between constant Grimm encounters, and even politically fueled engagements, their resolve was wearing thin. His face had gotten even more flushed, and he had gone incredibly still. She thought it best for Jaune to get some immediate and proper rest, not slumped up against the hard bark of a tree. Ruby smiled gleefully, and quicker than Jaune could react, she grabbed his hand, pulling him back to the campsite where they had set down for the night.  


“Woah! Ruby! You didn’t even give me a chance to respond! Slow down!” Jaune shouted as they rushed down the path at what he assumed to be near-semblance speed.  


“Oh yeah! Sorry!” Ruby dug the heels of her boots into the dirt, bringing her to an almost immediate stop. Unfortunately for Jaune, the act of being pulled by his hand by a smaller person, resulted in him running at an almost horizontal angle, and as such, when Ruby stopped, he did not. The oomph from them was accompanied by a thud as they both fell to the ground, landing comically as they did.  


Jaune held his hands up to his head before he realized the position he had put himself in, from below him Ruby had already recovered from the fall. Now, Ruby held her bright red face in her hands squealing with horror, “Jaaauuuunnee! Get off!” came her worried cries. Jaune turned a distinctly bright shade of red as he looked down to realize he was straddling Ruby, somehow she had turned around amidst the falling and was now held captive under him, unable to move from the sheer embarrassment of their positioning.  


“O-oh my g-god, I’m s-so s-sorry Ruby!” Jaune shouted, his voice cracking on almost every word. He stood up quickly and stepped back from the blushing girl still on the ground. Of course, before he could help her up, a flurry of rose petals fell to the ground majestically as Ruby used her semblance to abandon Jaune less than halfway from his training area to the campsite. He sighed and slowly made his way back to camp.  


Ruby was back to the dark campsite in moments, startling Ren and Nora, both of them sat awkwardly with their backs ramrod straight as she flew in, jumping into her bedroll as fast as she could. She paid little notice to Ren and Nora as they stayed in their shocked state, neither of them daring to move an inch for almost five minutes. When Jaune arrived, Ren was the first to come out of his initial surprise, clearing his throat before addressing Jaune directly, “So, u-uhm why are you out so late?” he inquired from the ground where he sat extremely close to Nora. Nora seemed to notice Jaune’s eyes rapidly darting between the two of them and so she giggled awkwardly, clearing her throat as well, before quickly crawling over to her own bedroll. Ren only spared a quick glance in Nora’s direction before he refocused on Jaune, giving a half-hearted chuckle.  


“I-I was training a bit…” Jaune said, rubbing the back of his neck shyly.  


“Oh, I thought you had stopped with the late at night sessions. Did something happen?” Ren asked, he was genuinely confused. As far as he had known, when the team had finally convinced him almost four months ago that it wasn’t his fault for Pyrrha’s death, Jaune had given up on sneaking off to mourn, slash train with the last bit of Pyrrha that he had. This new development made him think that something was up.  


“N-no, I just like to train on my own though, I’m just kinda stressed is all, I’ll be over it soon.”  


“How long have you been sneaking off at night, Jaune?”  


Jaune suddenly became very interested in his bedroll and sleep, yawning dramatically to emphasize how tired he was to Ren. He scratched his head and slinked his way to his bedroll, smacking his lips loudly, “Geez, sorry Ren, I’m j-just so tired y’know? L-let’s talk about this, y’know, tomorrow maybe?” and with that, Jaune fell asleep, quicker than Ren had expected, thinking his tiredness was a complete farce. He sighed and looked over to Nora, at least he knew why one of them was acting weird. His and Jaune’s bedrolls were separated from the girls’ by the now unlit campfire, making it awkward when Ren got up and went to give Nora a light peck on the lips before returning to his own bedroll. Nora gave no obvious indication that she had felt anything, save for the way her lips began to curl slightly at the corners.  


***

  


The next morning, Ruby was nowhere to be found, Ren had taken it upon himself to run through the forest calling Ruby’s name, to no avail. Nora was sound asleep, completely ignorant to the distinct lack of Ruby in the cool morning. Jaune figured she’d be in a tree somewhere, as of late she had taken to perching on high up branches for hours at a time, if she had snuck off anywhere, a tree was the most likely place. 

So it was that the brave heroes spent the better half of their morning looking for the girl that could travel faster than all of them, in trees beset on all sides by more trees, through the dense forest shouting in hopes of a reply and through the surrealistic fantasies of a dreamworld. Oddly enough, it was Nora that found Ruby first, though later, both Ren and Jaune would say that flying through the sky on a giant strawberry, didn’t count. Despite the semantics, Nora was the first to be contacted by Ruby, hours later when she was still sleeping and Ruby came back from a run through the forest.  


“Nora, are you really still asleep?” Ruby asked. She stooped down low, bending at the waist to peer at Nora’s lazy smile, “I guess you are…”  


“Ruby!” came a quiet shout from deep in the woods, it was probably Ren. Checking her scroll, Ruby realized that it had been a few hours since she had taken off on her little jog, and only now, arriving at camp did she realize, her scroll was set to ‘do not disturb’. She had two calls from Ren and four from Jaune, all separated by less than thirty minutes. Now, another incoming call silently popped up, it was Jaune’s goofy smile that greeted her. She picked up.  


“Hey, Jaune!” she said gleefully, seemingly unworried by the fear that was probably slowly settling down upon her friends.

“Ruby! Where the hell have you been? I’ve called you at least three times!” Jaune shouted, narrowing his eyes, as though he were seeing Ruby for the first time. Ruby found her cheeks feeling a little warmer at his scrutiny.  


“Four times, actually,” she corrected, eyes glued to the ground.  


“Whatever! Are you okay? Where are you?”  


“Yes, back at camp… Dad,” she grimaced at that word ‘dad’, it felt weird to have said that to Jaune. Ignoring the awkward feeling in her stomach, she sat down next to Nora, and finished her conversation with Jaune just as he was walking up from behind her. Still, Nora didn’t stir from her deep sleep, and Ruby swore that she could hear a faint ‘mmm Ren’ as she gently readjusted herself in her bed roll. As usual, Jaune was being extremely overprotective, he didn’t say a single word before kneeling down next to Ruby and giving her a visual inspection before plopping down in satisfaction.  


“So, wanna tell me where you were?” He asked dryly, wanting to sound less curious than he was, was Ruby’s guess.  


“I went out for a run,” Ruby replied, which was actually true, though with her semblance, it seemed almost like cheating.  


“For almost four hours?” Jaune questioned, lifting an eyebrow and turning his head slightly, “if you used your semblance, I’d say you probably made it to Atlas and back in those four hours. Where did you go though?”  


Ruby thought for a moment, she hadn’t gone anywhere terribly specific, sure she had passed a really nice looking waterfall that overlooked a particularly Grimm-looking rock formation, but she hadn’t stopped to check it out. There was also a cool cave that was so big, she hadn’t noticed it until she realized she was in it. In the end, she had only traveled a short ways away, so she said as much, “I just ran around for a few hours, nothing specifically caught my eye.”  


“Seriously? You have the power to fly around fast as hell, and you just ignored all the sights that there were to see?”  


“Well, I wasn’t really thinking about looking at ‘the sights’,” she said holding up air quotes. And it was true after all, she hadn’t been going around to look at the wonderful beauty of nature, she had been thinking really hard on other things. Mostly, she had thought about the weird floaty-ness she felt sometimes, it was like she was going to float away at the weirdest times, or at least it felt that way. She had yet to diagnose the problem, but figured out it mostly happened around the rest of RNJR, so she figured it was some weird emotional stuff.  


“What were you thinking about?” Jaune asked, leaning in a little closer.  


Ruby stared at Jaune a moment, feeling a little heat rushing into her face, and before she could even process it, her insides felt floaty. She gripped the log tighter, fearing what might happen if she let go, Jaune noticed, and leaned back a little to give her a questioning look. Ruby froze, but managed to speak, “Uh oh,” was all she said, before taking off into the forest, a trail of petals the only indication she had been there at all.  


Of course, Jaune wasn’t going to let Ruby run off again, this time he followed the trail of petals. It was difficult to do so, sometimes the petals led to very narrow opening in rocks or trees, forcing Jaune to squeeze through or lose the trail entirely. By the time he had found Ruby again, he was tired beyond belief, his feet ached and he struggled to stay upright, but of course, when he did see Ruby, she was simply perched in a tree, no indication that she was tired at all, and definitely no indication that she saw Jaune creeping up. He strode silently towards Ruby, careful not to scare her away again, but before he could say anything or get too close, she spoke.  


“What’s up Jaune,” she asked, as if she hadn’t just attempted to get away from him.  


“N-nothing Rubes, I was j-just y’know… Making sure you didn’t get into trouble, didn’t think I’d be able to keep up with you though,” he said, trying to shake the way his shallow breathing made his voice sound.  


“I just decided to let you catch up, figured you wouldn’t stop till you found me anyway. Or you died,” she responded, turning around and giving him a shy smile.  


“T-thanks,” Jaune said back. He had thought he was doing a really good job of keeping up with her, but it turned out that she was just going slowly for his sake. That was a blow to his already miniscule ego.  


Ruby’s only response was, “hmm,” and Jaune couldn’t help but notice the way she looked off into the distance, like she was seeing something infinitely far away. A leaf from a tree fell close to her face, prompting Ruby to follow it’s slow descent to the ground, she smiled softly, and Jaune felt his heart catch. His jaw tightened as his stomach did the same, he tried to speak, but no words would come to him. _C’mon Jaune! Say something! What’s wrong with you?_ He berated himself for what seemed like forever before Ruby finally turned to him, her eyes flashing as they caught the intermittent rays of sunshine that hadn’t been blocked by the tree cover. Jaune could swear that he felt his teeth cracking from the pressure as he stared into the beautiful silver gems that cast little flashes of light his way. Ruby’s hair swayed gently as a breeze began to pick up, pushing some hair into her face, forcing her to blink. She pushed some of the flowing locks behind her ear with her hand, eyes fluttering like a butterfly’s wings, and Jaune had to focus to keep his heart from stalling on him. Uh oh he thought, this could be bad. But why would it be? It could mean nothing that his heart was struggling to keep pace with his mind, and that his eyes couldn’t wander away from Ruby’s own eyes. It was very unlikely that he was feeling what he thought he might be feeling, wasn’t it? After all, he had known Ruby for a long time, wouldn’t this have happened long ago?  


Ruby struggled to catch her breath, Jaune’s jaw was clenched tightly and his eyes were open wide, she was sure that he was surprised by something on her face, but she was too embarrassed to try and inspect herself. Instead she focused on his face, even when it was reeling from shock, he was handsome, his blonde hair waved back and forth across his forehead, some lengths of hair long enough to swing across his eyes. It was probably a coincidence that as she was staring at Jaune, her floaty feeling was coming back to her, but she knew it wasn’t. That was the entire reason she had run away from Jaune the first time, her floaty feeling had returned, intensely she might add, when Jaune leant in close to her on the log. It was a split second decision that all her training had taught her to make as quickly as possible, and her choice had been to run away. Eventually, she had slowed down enough for Jaune to catch up, and she hoped that this time, she wouldn’t feel the urge to float away, she was wrong, it was getting worse every time she looked at Jaune.  


“S-so,” Jaune sputtered, clearly a little anxious now.  


“Hm,” Ruby replied, still opting for the: less is more, way of speaking.  


“Why did you come out here Ruby? Did I do something to freak you out?”  


“No!” she responded, a bit too quickly, and way too loudly, “no, it’s just that… Well, I really don’t know how to explain it Jaune,” _you could say that I think I’m falling in love with you,_ she thought, but decided against speaking the words out loud, “I just felt a little… nauseated is all.”  


“O-oh!” Jaune said, trying to fight the quaver of his voice, “c-cool, just wanted to make sure you were okay then,” he said softly, _and I think I might be developing some feelings for you,_ he neglected to say.  


“Yeah, thanks Jaune!” Ruby said, smiling a little, “I appreciate that… You’re really a great guy,” she finished, turning herself on the branch so her body face him. This time, it wasn’t Jaune who noticed the way her skirt refused to hide her more intimate places. Ruby realized that the ruffles of her skirt probably wouldn’t cover her well at the angle she was sitting, and with a yelp, she jumped off the branch and was about to semblance herself to the other side of the planet, when Jaune caught her by the arm. She turned around to look at him, her face now full of blush, and hotter than she cared to admit.  


Jaune stared at Ruby for what seemed like an eternity, his face was beginning to heat up, and he was almost at a loss for words. Despite his reservations, he spoke with confidence and a sense of purpose, “Ruby, I want to go out to dinner with you,” he punctuated his sentence by clenching his unoccupied fist.  
Ruby almost couldn’t hide her shock at the sudden and forceful way that Jaune had just ‘asked’ her out on a date. She cleared her throat, and despite her attempts at sounding calm and collected, she released from her mouth, a torrent of silly rapid-fire questions, “Like, right now? In the woods? What about Ren and Nora, and the campsite? Where would we even go?”  


Jaune stifled a laugh, “Obviously not here Rubes, I meant, when we get to the next village. I remember Ren saying that it was one of the biggest out here, maybe they’ll have somewhere nice we can go?”  


“O-oh, right… Duh,” Ruby said, still a little caught off guard by Jaune’s directness, she never would have expected him to take initiative like that, much less to ask her out on a date. Inside, she was screaming with delight at the prospect of her little crush bearing some sort of fruit, it was actually almost unbelievable. She said as much to Jaune, “are you sure you want to go out with me?”  


“O-of course Ruby! W-why? Do you n-not want to go out with me? Because I totally get that, y’know, if you don’t want to! I’m not gonna force you or anything, really!” Jaune was back to his normal self as he sputtered on, Ruby actually found it quite cute.  


“Of course, I want to go out with you! It was just a little surprising, that’s all!” She said, and it was true, she’d never been to dinner with someone so this was going to be exciting.  


***

  


The walk back to the campsite had been a little awkward, but for the most part, the huntsman and huntress took the awkwardness head on, forcing it into submission. They talked about how long it would be until they got to the village Ren had mentioned, Ferarosa, it was around a day and half away at their current speed they figured. Plenty of time for Ruby and Jaune to talk openly about what was going on with them and the new developments in their relationship, or, to completely ignore each other and act awkward around the other half of team RNJR.  


***

  


Jaune was beginning to get anxious as the sun set, he and Ruby had, for the most part, not talked since he had asked her out to dinner, and now he couldn’t help but think about their upcoming date in only one short day. Several thoughts swirled in his mind, _what if there isn’t a good place to eat? What if she changes her mind? Maybe this village had been abandoned as well!_ Overall, Jaune was beginning to doubt that the date, if it even happened, would go over smooth. Up ahead of the rest of them, Ruby walked bouncily from one side of the road to the other. _If she's this happy,_ Jaune thought, _maybe she is still looking forward to our date!_ Nora caught on to how bubbly Ruby was being as well, they only had a couple of hours before they were going to rest, and usually she was more mellowed out this late in the day. She whispered something to Ren, who stifled a chuckle and cast a very subtle look back at Jaune, though it wasn’t subtle enough as Jaune had noticed it immediately.  


“What are you guys talkin’ about?” Jaune asked, narrowing his eyes at the two suspiciously.  


“Nooothinnnggg!” Nora sang, skipping ahead to catch up to Ruby.  


“Ren?”  


“Hm? I don’t know what you’re talking about Jaune, she just said a silly joke.”  


“Mind sharing?”  


“Yes,” Ren replied curtly, and with that he leapt into the trees, flying far ahead of everyone going from branch to branch. Jaune grimaced and sped up his pace to keep up with everyone else, by the time he caught up to Ruby however, Nora had sped off after Ren, leaving the huntress behind with a very red face. Jaune couldn’t help but smile at how cute Ruby looked as he caught up to her. When he was next to her, she jumped, looking away from him as if embarrassed.  
“What’s up Ruby?” Jaune said, looking down at her hand. He never realized how much he had wanted to hold someone’s hand before, and now he had to stop himself from reaching out and taking Ruby’s.  


“N-nothing, just a little flustered from walking all day, and those Grimm we fought earlier.”  


“Liar,” Jaune said simply, walking in front of her and turning around so she had to look at him as they continued. He occasionally tossed a glance at the ground behind him as he walked backwards, but for the most part he stared at Ruby.  


“I-I’m not lying! I am really just a little tired and just need to rest, I swear!”  


“What did Nora say to make you blush so much?”  


“Nothing, seriously! She just walked next to me, not talking at all!”  


“Right,” Jaune said, thinking he could actually probably just guess at what Nora had said, “did she mention that we’re acting weird lately? Almost like we’re hiding something?”  


“N-no!” Ruby shouted, covering her mouth when she realized she had.  


“C’mon Rubes, it’s pretty obvious, I think. She probably asked you about me, huh? Probably some personal stuff? It’s alright! She’s just messing around, don’t let it mess with you!”  


The truth was, Nora had mentioned that her and Jaune seemed pretty giddy after their little adventure hike through the woods, she had even suggested that they had done more than just walk and talk, nudging her with her elbow almost the whole time. But Ruby wouldn’t tell Jaune that.  


“Well…” Ruby said, considering, “yeah, she just asked if something happened between us this morning.”  


“Hm,” Jaune mumbled thoughtfully, “d-do you think something did?” he asked, now back to the normalcy of shyness.  


“I mean… It did, right? Like, it’s not like something didn’t happen today, it might not amount to anything substantial, but something did happen between us, and we can’t really deny that.”  


“Did you deny it, when Nora asked you?”  


At this, Ruby felt her face blush almost immediately, she had denied it to Nora, though, given how much she had sputtered more than spoken, Nora had probably seen right through the lie, “No, well, sort of. I told her we had a talk about some personal stuff, not really the romantic thing.”  


“Romantic? You thought that was romantic?” Jaune asked, lighting up a little at the idea of Ruby thinking he had been romantic, it made his stomach flutter with delight, and was quickly followed by a tightening in his chest and stomach alike.  


“I-I mean, it wasn’t super romantic or anything! It was, a little, but I meant more in the sense that it involves our romantic relationship.”  


“Oh,” came Jaune’s simple reply.  


“Hey, don’t get sad, it was romantic! You were so confident when you asked, it flustered me a little, honestly, it’s the most romantic thing I've ever experienced!” Ruby said as she reached her hand out to grab Jaune’s hand. They both felt it that time, the feeling that they were going to float away if they weren’t careful, as well as the sudden heat that filled their faces. Ruby looked away and tightened her grip slightly, embarrassed by her initiative but still enjoying the way her hand felt in his. Jaune’s breathing stopped for a second, shocked by how wonderful it felt to hold Ruby’s hand. A beat, and then Jaune entwined his fingers with hers, making the hand holding much more intense, so much so, that he heard Ruby squeak. How had he never realized how cute it was when she squeaked? He looked over and found Ruby wasn’t looking away anymore, but stared at their joined hands, surprised. Jaune chuckled and smiled at Ruby, even without the dramatic lighting of the deep woods, she was beautiful.  


Ruby sighed with happiness, realizing that her and Jaune might be a couple now, even if they hadn’t had their first official date. Without a second thought, Ruby closed the distance between them, still walking side by side, and leant her head on his shoulder, he responded in kind, leaning his head on hers. They walked like this for several minutes, until they caught up to Nora and Ren, who were already setting up the campsite, without skipping a beat, they dropped each other’s hand and took a step away from each other. Nora giggled when she turned around, noticing the way that Jaune and Ruby were red in the face and awkwardly looking away from each other.  


_Yeah_ Ruby thought, _we may be a couple, but it’s still gonna be awkward as hell._  


_Shit, she’s too pretty_ was all that Jaune could think, trying to avert his gaze as she went to help Nora with the immense amounts of firewood she had collected.  


***

  


That night, in spite of how awkward everyone felt around their partner, everyone stayed up extra late, gazing at the beautiful stars, and not for the first time, feeling so incredibly small and lonely. Ren and Jaune talked about constellations and the general beauty of the sky. Nora had found herself cuddled up next to Ren on the soft grass, as he leant back with his arms on either side, one of them supporting Nora. His head leaned against hers and he would occasionally whisper things that Nora would giggle at. Jaune mentioned the town they were to visit tomorrow, and Ren confirmed that it was actually less than a day away, they would probably arrive mid afternoon if time was on their side. Jaune couldn’t help but feel giddy at the thought of his date with Ruby, and apparently, Ruby was feeling the same because, she also found herself cuddled up against Jaune on the log, though she only found herself like this because Nora and Ren sat in front of the log, so they couldn’t see her and Jaune.  


Jaune took a chance, and wrapped his arm around Ruby, pulling her closer to him, and she responded by nuzzling her cheek against his shoulder affectionately, this sent a shiver down his spine and sent his heart racing. Ruby sensed the way he tensed and giggle before looking up at him and placing a soft peck on his cheek.  


_Oh my glob,_ Jaune thought as he felt his heart pump faster than it ever had before, _this girl is going to kill me._  


Ruby giggled once more and closed her eyes before whispering to Jaune, “I never thought I’d be sitting here like this with anyone before Jaune,” She sighed and placed a hand on Jaune’s thigh.  


“Me neither,” Jaune whispered back, trying to ignore the inappropriate feeling he got when Ruby placed her hand on his thigh. He turned his head a little and kissed the crown of Ruby’s head, smiling at the wonderful scent that emanated from her hair, _what was it?_ He sniffed a little and realized that it was floral, roses to be exact. He chuckled and Ruby sighed again.  


“I know my hair smells like roses Jaune, and I swear if you make a single joke… I’ll kill you, I’ve heard enough from Yang and my dad!” She whispered harshly, more playful than serious.  


“I’d never joke about how your hair smells Rubes, I just think that I might not be able to get enough of it, you smell amazing, I love it.”  


Ruby gasped a little at Jaune’s admission, more specifically, the word love. She’d never really heard that word directed at her in anyway except from Yang and dad, and it felt weird coming from Jaune, but in a good way. She giggled and turned her head up to look at the stars.  


“What can you tell me about the constellations and stuff Jaune?”  


“Weren’t you listening to me and Ren?” Jaune asked, incredulous.  


“Obviously, just tell me about them already, before I change my mind,” she said, faking a yawn.  


“Fine, fine,” Jaune conceded, “well, lemme see. If you look over there, right above that little hook in the tree, yeah, that one, that’s…”  


Ruby smiled as she heard Jaune’s voice trail off, she wouldn’t remember anything about the constellations, but she just loved to hear his voice.  


On the ground, Nora and Ren shared a conspiratorial look, listening to Ruby’s slowing breathing. Before too long, Jaune noticed that Ruby was asleep and he carried Ruby ceremoniously to her bedroll, which tonight, was next to his. He paused only for a moment before looking over at Ren and Nora who were feigning sleep. Once the two were in their bedrolls and sleeping, Ren and Nora shared a kiss, gentle and sweet. Nora loved Ren’s kisses, and before he could do anything about it, she pounced on him, kissing him again, with much more passion this time, he smirked and returned the kiss. A soft groan escaped from Nora and she bit softly at Ren’s lip, he complied and allowed her entry to his mouth. They kissed for several more minutes before retiring to their bedrolls and falling asleep, holding each other’s hand.  


***

  


“Nora? C’mon Nora! Geeeetttt uuuuuupppp!” Ruby whisper-yelled at the still sleeping, hammer wielding huntress, “Nora! Oh! Ren, sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up so rudely- are you and Nora holding hands?” Ruby asked, seeing their connected hands when Ren did a sleepy stretch. He stopped dead, like prey that has sensed a predator nearby. For a long moment, Ren held his arm outstretched as he sat, forcing Nora’s own hand to twist her awkwardly while she still slept.  


He considered not answering for a moment, and considered it once again when Jaune sauntered up to the site, adjusting his sheath as he did so, “W-well, you see,” he began, hoping to find the sentence as he went along, “Nora… She has really intense nightmares sometimes, and so-”  


“Wait, she does?” Jaune interrupted, “I never noticed that at beacon!” he finished, considering what Ren just said very seriously.  


“She does, you’re usually not awake when she d-”  


“Wow, you’d think that I’d remember something like that, I mean I’ve had some late nights and I don’t remember her freaking out once!”  


“Jaune!” Ruby said, trying to listen to Ren, and finding Jaune’s interruptions very annoying and very rude.  


“Right…”  


“Anyway, as I was saying, she has nightmares, and sometimes she needs someone to hold her hand while she drifts off to sleep… A-and I was tired so I fell asleep without having detatched our hands!” Ren concluded, satisfied with his answer.  


“So it has nothing to do with you guys kissing last night?” Jaune said, looking up at the sky with genuine curiosity on his face. At this, Ren flinched, shaking Nora out of sleep, apparently she had been on the cusp of waking. Ren looked down at Nora and unhooked their hands, standing quickly and awkwardly.  


“Mmmm, ‘ey, wasup?” Nora said, rubbing her eyes and trying to shake the drowsiness from her face and still partially sleeping brain, “We talkin’ about bre’fas’ babe?” it took until after her stretch to realize that Ren was staring daggers at her, then another moment to realize what she had said wrong. “Fuck” she said.  


“Nora!” Ren yelled, partially for revealing a big secret that had probably not actually been that big a secret, and partially because of her flippant use of ‘fuck’.  


“Sorry! Sorrysorrysorrysrrysrrysrysrysrysrysry!” Nora shouted, leaping to her feet in utter embarrassment.  


“Woah, calm down guys!” it was Ruby that said this, “it’s no big deal, I mean, it’s not like nobody saw this coming a mile away!”  


“Yeah, did you guys really think I wouldn’t notice you guys making out? Or the hickeys? Or the way your lips were swollen sometimes?” Jaune added, disregarding any embarrassment the couple might have been feeling up to this point.  


“Jaune!” Ren and Nora shouted in unison, their faces were now tomato red and the expressions they wore were not very happy.  


“What?”  


“This is embarrassing!” Nora said, “we weren’t ready to tell people about this!”  


“Aw, c’mon guys, it’s fine, besides, it’s not like you and Ren don’t know about Jaune and I!” Ruby said, and immediately wished she could swallow back the words, “I-I mean…”  


“Ruby!” this time, it was Jaune that was staring daggers at his partner.  


“Heh, woops…” Ruby mumbled. And so it was that the next hour was spent clearing up any and all details about the relationships now present in the team RNJR dynamic. 

Perhaps it was awkward from the very start, or perhaps it was when they split up by gender to discuss certain things that, to a normal person, might seem unsavory to speak about in front of the opposite gender. No, Ruby and Jaune hadn’t gotten past the holding hands slash cuddling stage. No, Nora and Ren hadn’t done anything beyond the making out and the occasional fondling. No, Ruby and Jaune hadn’t been going out for long, in fact, they hadn’t even had their first date yet. Yes, Ren and Nora had been dating for a while, almost two months at this point, and were very proud of how long they had kept it secret. Yes, Ruby did like Jaune a lot. Yes, Jaune did like Ruby very much. Yes, they did really want to kiss, but wanted to wait at least until the first date.  


It wasn’t until Ruby’s giggles drew Jaune’s eyes, that Ren remembered it was time to head out. He smiled at the idea of the two being together now, it was cute, but he did have one last question for Jaune. Being that it was late, he decided to hold off until they reached Ferarosa later that day.  


***

  


“What?” Jaune asked, stepping into one of the bedrooms in the apartment that the team was sharing in Ferarosa. Ruby and Nora had gone out, in search of a slightly less casual outfit for Ruby, Nora figured her combat skirts were a little too ‘weird’ to wear on a date. Jaune was still toweling off his hair when Ren’s question caught him off guard.  


“You heard me Jaune, do you still think about Pyrrha?”  


“I-I mean… Sometimes, yeah… Why does it matter though?” Jaune replied, wishing Ren would drop the subject altogether. He didn’t.  


“Because Jaune, I just wanna know that your heart is in it with Ruby, if you still think about Pyrrha and it distracts you from Ruby, you’ll break her heart.”  


“I don’t think about Pyrrha like that anymore! If I do think about her, it’s only because something I’ve seen or heard had reminded me, it doesn’t just happen out of the blue! You guys forced me out of that bad habit months ago.”  


“Okay, I’m just making sure Jaune.” Ren said, picking up a towel and walking out of the bedroom and into the shared bathroom.  


That got Jaune thinking, and up until the moment he stepped out of Ren’s and his bedroom, it was all he could think of. But the sight of Ruby in her dress, shut off all thoughts except for _‘damn’_ that might’ve been going through Jaune’s mind. The dress was red, of course, and had off the shoulder straps that looked like silken arm bands. As his eyes worked their way down, he saw how form fitting it was, accentuating how fit Ruby was. The skirt was distinguished from the rest of the dress by red flowery lace, straight along the bottom edge, but pointed like an arrow above her bellybutton, and reached down to just above her knees in front, and down, just past the knees in the back. Her hair was wavier than he remembered, and her left side was pinned behind her ear, showing off a red, rose shaped stud in her ear. He was in awe at how much more beautiful Ruby had become, but then he looked down again and smirked at the flower lace, giving Ruby a funny face.  


“Yeah, yeah, flower lace, Ruby Rose, so funny haha!” she said sarcastically, pausing for a moment to catch Jaune’s eyes directly before continuing, “well… H-how do I look?”  


“Amazing,” was all that Jaune could say, and all he was thinking as he held his arm out for Ruby, and she hooked her arm through it. _Absolutely amazing._


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In hindsight, the date had actually gone pretty well, and Jaune thought about this, even as a sword clashed with his own. He parried, and returned to his thoughts, _I mean, it was a little shorter than I would’ve liked, but damn! Ruby looks good!_ He had this last thought as he turned to see Ruby twirling her scythe gracefully before crashing it down on another attacker’s sword. 

Ruby was thinking the same things, more or less. She felt pretty energized as she fought off attacker after attacker, and thanks to her date, albeit a short one, she couldn’t help but smile widely as she slashed her way through the opposition. _Wow, Jaune looks badass!_ She thought, seeing the young man transition gracefully between his targets, never losing his footing or even his grip. 

When it was all said and done, Jaune sheathed his sword, grateful that he took Ren’s advice and brought it along, and although he was surprised that Ruby had brought Crescent Rose, he couldn’t really blame her. He took a minute to survey the unconscious bodies littered on the ground just outside of the restaurant they had been in only five minutes ago. Fourteen men and nine women, all of them still out cold from the ass kicking delivered by both Ruby and Jaune. 

Three of the members had entered the restaurant, demanding to see the owner, and when he came in from the kitchen, he was jumped. Of course, Jaune couldn’t just let them gang up on a poor old man like that, and Ruby had already reacted and swooped in to break up the heavily one-sided fight, he couldn’t just let his date take on the thugs. The attackers ran outside, and when the couple had arrived, they were surprised to see a horde of them jumping out from all over. Unfortunately for the gang, Ruby and Jaune were only momentarily caught off guard, and within minutes, the gang was no longer a threat. 

It was at this moment that Jaune realized how heavily he was breathing, he looked over at Ruby and saw her cheeks were a little red, and her breathing was also quite heavy. She must’ve had the same thought as him, because almost at the same time, they looked away from each other, mortified by their absurd thoughts. That moment didn’t last long, because the owner came out shortly after to thank them for beating up what they now knew was a small branch of a relatively large group of gangsters calling themselves the Thorn. Apparently, refusing to pay the protection money meant that even protection from the Thorn itself wasn’t guaranteed. Jaune and Ruby waved off the man’s thank you’s, saying it was what anyone would have done, but the man wasn’t having it, and offered to make them dessert, on the house. Ruby was about to turn him down on the generous offer, until he mentioned the chocolate covered strawberries. 

***

As it so happened, the dessert consisted of a thick piece of the most rich chocolate cake Jaune had ever had, topped with a marbled glaze that made it almost reflective. Ruby devoured her slice as elegantly as she could, and by the time Jaune had taken a second bite, Ruby was eagerly awaiting on the next dessert. She was in awe when it came, a small plate with the biggest, reddest strawberries either of them had ever seen, partially covered in chocolate, with a beautiful golden drizzle, which Jaune assumed wasn’t real gold, that is, until the owner came out and informed them that it was in fact, edible gold. Jaune was shocked that edible gold was even a thing, but Ruby seemed to pay no attention as she ate the strawberries almost as fast as she’d eaten the cake. 

Jaune smiled at her, and asked the owner if he could have a container for his strawberries, the man smiled and complied, bringing back a golden container, which was actually made of a very sturdy plastic, bearing the initials of the restaurant; RR. That made Jaune’s smile widen a little, RR, Ruby Rose. 

Jaune went to pay for the meal, when the owner told him that it was all on the house, despite his insistence that it was nothing. Ruby waited outside the door under the red and gold awning, looking out at the light drizzle that had begun since the fight thirty minutes ago. As was becoming more and more common lately, Jaune couldn’t help but stare at Ruby, absolutely astounded that he had never noticed how wonderful she was. The owner clearing his throat, pulled Jaune from his overly romantic thoughts. “R-right!” he said, giving a slight nod before going out to meet Ruby. 

“Jaune,” she said as he stepped out into the chilly night air, reaching out and wrapping an arm around his to snuggle up to, “this was fun.” 

All he could do was smile, and give Ruby a kiss on the head, once again getting a whiff of her floral aroma. They stepped out into the drizzle and were surprised when they didn’t get wet, Jaune looked up and saw the umbrella before seeing the person holding it, Ruby on the other hand, saw the man first. “Uncle Qrow?” Ruby shouted at the same time that Jaune made an inquisitive sound. 

“Hey kiddo, how you doin’?” Qrow responded, not slurring his words, or at least, no more than he usually did, considering how alcoholic his breath was smelling. 

“Qrow?” Jaune shouted, pulling free from Ruby’s grip. He fiddled with his own hands for a moment, all the while looking around for witnesses to the crime about to happen. 

He had heard from Yang and Ruby alike about how protective their father was of them, some boys never made it past the front door of their home, and some wished they hadn’t gotten past. The only thing Jaune knew about Qrow was that he was a drunk, technically not related Ruby, and equally if not more protective than Tai-Yang. 

“I’m doing alright! What’re you doing here?” Ruby responded, seemingly unflustered by the sudden appearance of one of her family members, though her hand searching behind her for Jaune was indicating that she might be a bit nervous. 

“Oh, y’know, I just flew in and decided to check out the local bars, but I saw you two having a nice little dinner in there,” he nodded his head at the restaurant, “saw that fight you guys got in, gotta say, I’m impressed.” 

“T-thanks, uncle Qrow.” Ruby was slower to respond, she was waiting for him to call them out. 

“Yeah, anyway, here, take this and get back to wherever you’re staying safely,” he said, handing over the umbrella, which, upon closer inspection, looked very expensive. 

“Thanks?” Jaune said, taking the umbrella from Qrow. 

“No problem,” he replied, walking away towards what looked to be a very fancy bar, “and one more thing you two!” he shouted, not bothering to turn around, “use protection!” 

Jaune and Ruby both went bright red at the loudness and sensitivity of what Qrow had just shouted in a fairly populated city. Without another word, they made their way home under the protective power of the fancy and expensive umbrella that Qrow had just relinquished to them. 

***

The door creaked open and Nora stepped out into the chill of Ren and Jaune’s shared room. Her hair was still pretty wet and the towel that she used to conceal herself was almost too short, though she hoped that Ren wouldn’t mind. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t Ren that walked into the room, it was in fact Jaune, and although that might’ve been bad enough. The sexy towel drop made the situation almost infinitely worse. With a shriek, Jaune shut the door to his room and ran across the small living space to Ruby and Nora’s shared room. 

***

“Really?” Ruby asked, stopping dead in her tracks, a small splash of milk dripping onto the floor. 

“Y-yeah, fully naked, except for y’know, panties, but even so, it was too much Nora for me.” 

“Hmm,” Ruby hummed thoughtfully, placing her milk and cookies on a side table on her side of the bed, “Typically, y’know, in sitcoms and stuff, this kind of thing is fixed by you also getting naked in front of her.” 

“Ruby! Not funny! And besides, I didn’t see everything, I’d hardly call it fair if she just sees me in my underwear. That’s happened plenty of times.” 

“Right, well, I don’t know what to tell you Jaune, just forget it about it.” 

“I don’t think that I’ll ever forget what I’ve seen Ruby.” 

“I know what will make you forget,” Ruby said, a little more seductively than Jaune had expected, “wanna guess what it is?” 

Jaune swallowed and sat down on the bed, “Is it…” he began, softly, leaning in slightly so Ruby could hear him, “a movie marathon?” 

Ruby bit her lip, “Yep!” she shouted, flicking on the flat screen that hung on the wall opposite the bed. 

The first movie, was a comedy, two cartoon superheroes and their struggle with not actually having real powers. Ruby was enthralled by the seemingly infinite abundance of slapstick, and lack of comprehensible story, Jaune thought it could’ve been better. At the end of it, Ruby went off on a rant about the motivations of such ‘complex’ and ‘interesting’ characters, leaving Jaune to search for the next selection, a romance. This time, the movie explored the trials and tribulations that a faunus in love with a human would face, specifically when the human’s family is most known for their anti-faunus views. Naturally, the story was heart wrenching, with an ending so bittersweet that Jaune almost couldn’t hold back tears, Ruby cried for a couple of minutes but quickly recovered. After a short break for snacks, Ruby returned to the bed and clicked through the pages and pages of movie selections, landing on another comedy, specifically, a sequel to the first one they’d seen. 

“No,” Jaune protested when he saw the title of the movie on screen. 

“But Jaune! We need closure on the story! I need to know what happens to them after they stop the king!” Ruby whined, trying to snatch the remote that Jaune had taken from her. 

“Ruby! A good movie should have the capability of being self contained, no additional movies should be necessary!” 

“Ugh, fine!” Ruby crossed her arms and flopped so that she took up most of the space on the bed. 

“Good, now… Why don’t we watch this one?” 

“No way! I don’t wanna watch a horror movie! It’s like just past midnight, I’ll never get to sleep afterward!” 

“Relax Rubes, I’ve read a few reviews on this one, it’s not a horror as much as a thriller, trust me. You’ll love it!” 

“F-fine, just put it on already!” she shouted into the pillow that now covered her face. 

***

As it turned out, Jaune was wrong, the movie was probably the scariest he’d seen in his entire life. Before too long, he was pressed against the wall behind the bed, holding a pillow defensively while Ruby did the same next to him. Jaune sneaked a glance at the clock on Ruby’s bedside table, it read 12:57, which meant that the movie had been on for just over half an hour, he groaned, he wasn’t sure he could last for another hour. He didn’t have to worry about that for much longer, because when the next jumpscare happened, Ruby yelped and threw her pillow at the screen, jumping as she did so into Jaunes arms and lap. When the tension died down, Ruby opened her eyes and stared right at Jaune who stared back. For a moment, they both just sat there, staring and holding their breath. 

Ruby broke the ice, “S-sorry about that Jaune… I can just get off and-” 

Jaune responded by firmly placing his hands on Ruby’s waist, holding her in place, “N-no!” he shouted, maybe a little too loudly. 

“Um, o-okay?” 

“I mean, if you don’t want to, of course…” he said, awkwardly releasing Ruby from his grip. 

“Well,” she mumbled, “I guess… It’s not the worst place to be, it’s quite comfortable actually.” she finished, turning her head down as a blush began to fill her cheeks. 

“Good,” he responded, gaining back his confidence and placing a hand on her waist once more, she still looked down and so his other hand went to her cheek. He turned her gently to face him and smirked at her, “You’re real cute when you’re blushing Rubes,” he teased. 

“What? I-I’m not!” she shouted, covering her face and leaning away from Jaune, though not trying too hard to escape from his lap. 

He turned off the movie, and returned his attention to Ruby, “listen Ruby, Ren and Nora are definitely asleep in my room right now, meaning that I won’t have anywhere to sleep, either that or they AREN’T asleep, in which case, I have somewhere to sleep, but I’d rather not. So that means I am going to sleep in here, one way or another.” 

“Oh my glob, Jaune, please! S-stop talking.” Ruby responded, still leaning away. 

“Oh, hey Rubes, look at me,” Jaune said, an air of shock in his voice. 

“What-” Ruby began, but was swiftly interrupted by Jaune’s lips on hers. 

In an instant, Ruby’s mind went blank, no embarrassing thoughts, no worries about her family or the couple just a few feet away, nothing but the heat that pressed softly against her. She lost herself in that kiss, and before she knew it, it was over, and Jaune was pulling away. A sly grin was plastered on his face, and Ruby swore that he had never looked cuter. He began to speak, but was interrupted by Ruby this time, pressing herself against him and holding his shirt in her iron grip. This time, the kiss was longer, deeper and frankly, WAY sexier. Jaune slowly moved his hands down from her waist until he was actually just holding her butt in his hands, and Ruby squeaked when he gave her a light squeeze. 

“Sorry Ruby!” Jaune was quick to say, though his hands didn’t move, only lessening their grip. 

“I-it’s okay, just, warn me next time, okay?” 

“Right.” 

Just like that, their night was gone. It had been one in the morning when the kissing began, and before they knew it, they were passed out, Ruby still in Jaune’s lap, though only partially, as she now lay across Jaune with her head hanging off the bed. Jaune’s legs were held captive by Ruby and so he had fallen asleep in much the same position he had been in, though his head lolled back and forth as the hours passed. 

Before too long, Nora stepped into the room, a very chipper and spatula wielding Ren behind her. They stood in the doorway and stared at the couple that was partially sprawled across the bed, Jaune’s face was covered in lipstick and Ruby’s hair was extremely tousled. Nora snickered and made a dash for the bed, hoping to hop aboard and startle her adorable teammates, but, Ren reached out a hand and grabbed her by the collar, “Nora, they didn’t bother us last night, just let them be. Come on, I’m making pancakes.” at the mention of pancakes, Nora disregarded her previous mission and instead ran to the kitchen to await buttermilk heaven. 

***

The sun had been on course to rise and set as it always had, it was now almost eight in the morning and sleepily, Jaune roused from his slumber and attempted to stand. He was stopped by a hand around his arm, he turned and realised that at some point, Ruby and he had arranged themselves properly on the bed. Her eyes were still shut, but Jaune could clearly see her eyelids fluttering against the incoming rays of sunshine. He smiled and bent down to kiss Ruby on the corner of her mouth, she let out a happy sigh and stretched up to give him a proper kiss on the lips. 

“Ruby, it’s almost eight, we should get up.” 

“Noooooo,” she whined and smashed her face against the pillow, “just a few more minutes Jauney!” she said as she stifled a yawn. 

“Fine Ruby-y… that doesn’t really work with your name does it?” at that, Ruby giggled and pulled Jaune down next to her, cuddling in sweetly to his chest. She wasn’t going to fall asleep again, but it felt good to just cuddle. 

Five minutes turned into ten, turned into twenty, turned into an hour. Not of her own free will, Ruby was coerced into staying in bed, though the coercion consisted mainly of Jaune falling asleep and rolling over onto her. Although she could complain, and even throw him off, (she knew for a fact she could throw him across the room with ease) she found the pressure and weight of Jaune made her feel surprisingly at ease. By the end of the hour however, Ruby figured that it would be best to get up. 

“Did Nora leave us pancakes do you think?” Ruby mumbled from beneath the mass of young man that was on top of her. 

“Mmmm,” Jaune hummed, stretching slowly before responding properly, “I wouldn’t bet on it.” he rolled off of Ruby, seemingly unaware of the weird position he had just been in. 

“Let’s get going then,” she replied with a grunt, using her semblance to bamf herself to the door rather than expend caloric energy on walking. She reached her hand out to the doorknob and was interrupted by the door suddenly swinging open and a flurry of red hair. 

“Ruby! How was the booping last night?” Nora shouted, more excited than she had been in days. The implication that she was making made Ruby’s face brighten, and before she could ask again, Ruby dashed out of the bedroom, and a second later out of the inn room. 

“Nora, I hate you,” Jaune said, walking up to her still stood in the door frame. 

“Oh, whatever, will you at least answer the question?” 

“We didn’t do anything except watch movies, Nora,” he said simply, pushing past Nora and out to follow Ruby. 

“Suuuuuureeee,” Nora said, bounding behind him gleefully, “Then what was with all the kissing noises?” 

“W-well, maybe there was some kissing, but nothing more than that. Actually, I don’t even remember when I fell asleep, but the last thing I remember was kissing Ruby,” Jaune said before he could stop himself, and he hurriedly pressed his hands to his mouth, shocked that he would tell this to Nora. 

“HAH! I knew it!” Nora shouted, jumping higher in the air than should have been possible, “How was it Jaune? Did you enjoy it, huh? Betcha you did!” she teased. She was now spinning in circles, giggling and teasing Jaune as they walked down the corridor in the inn. When they reached the stairs to the first floor, Nora stepped up to the balcony overlooking the lobby, and spotted Ruby sitting in front of the fireplace, she let Jaune know. 

It was strange, walking up to Ruby after the intimate night that they had shared, it felt almost awkward to talk to her now, and Jaune felt the weight of that awkwardness press down on him as he approached the silently sitting Ruby. Had it not been for Nora and her insistence on sticking her nose in everybody's business, Ruby and Jaune might have had the entire morning to talk about where they wanted this ‘thing’, Jaune wasn‘t sure if it would BE a relationship, to go. Instead, here he was, afraid to approach the girl he had spent an entire night with, even if it had been spent sleeping, and it was all because Nora couldn’t help but to make everything awkward and extremely personal. 

“What’s up Jaune?” Ruby’s soft whisper almost didn’t pierce through the haze of Jaune’s thoughts. He fumbled his words, not knowing what to say now that he was put on the spot by the girl he wanted to, needed to, talk to. 

“U-um, well, Ruby, i-it’s just that, er, w-well,” his words failed him, and Ruby turned to look at him with an eyebrow raised, “W-why’d you run off like that?” 

“Yeah, well, the thing is…” she trailed off and turned to look back into the gentle fire that danced within its brick enclosure. 

“I mean, it’s cool if you don’t wanna talk about it Rubes, I just want to make sure that you’re okay, y’know?” 

“I-I’m great Jaune! Yeah, don’t even worry about it, I just got a little, uh, flustered, is all!” 

“Really? Well, that’s good to hear, I guess, do you want to… Go get some breakfast in town? Nora ran off to the room when I came down here, if she didn’t finish those pancakes before, she definitely has now.” 

“Sure, let’s do it!” Ruby said excitedly as she ran for the exit, leaving Jaune to follow her. 

“Great…” he began, “But… Do you even know where you’re going?” he mumbled, shrugging in defeat, and trudging along behind the overeager girl who definitely had zero clue of where to find breakfast in this city. 

***

“Okay, okay!” Ruby said, “there’s gotta be something down… HERE!” she shouted, pouncing into the alley as if to surprise an enemy, then she shrugged her shoulders in defeat when all she found were dumpsters. 

“Why would there be a breakfast place in an alleyway, Rubes?” Jaune asked, genuinely curious if his friend’s few remaining strings of sanity were beginning to fray, “c’mon, we passed a really nice looking place a block or two back.” 

“No, didn’t you see the name of the place?” 

“No… What was it?” he replied, worriedly. 

“I don’t know, but it was some really long pretentious foreign name! Everything probably costs like a million Lien!” 

“That seems a little assumptive, don’t ya think? What’s pretentious about a foreign name anyway?” 

“It’s not the name that’s pretentious Jaune! But c’mon, the name was like twenty syllables, no name needs to be THAT long! The fact that it’s foreign is just the icing on top.” 

“Right, well, why don’t we give it a try at least? There wasn’t a line, and it didn’t look very full, I doubt we’ll find a place at this hour that isn’t totally packed.” 

“Fine, but I won’t say I told you so!” 

***

“Hah! I told you so!” Ruby shouted accusingly, her thin pale finger mere centimeters from Jaune’s face. He was leant back in his seat, so as to avoid being booped, but he couldn’t hide the shock on his face at the cost of pretty much everything in the menu, even the cheapest options would leave a significant dent in Jaune’s wallet. 

“Shhh! Ruby, fine! You were right, okay?” Jaune said. He reached out and pushed Ruby’s hand back onto the table and keeping his hand on hers, “Do you wanna go eat somewhere else? We can keep searching for a nice place in the alleys,” he went on, unable to keep a smirk from sliding onto his face. 

“Nah, I’ve got enough to cover pretty much anything! Qrow actually left me some Lien when he left us in the woods a couple weeks back.” 

“Really? Are you sure? Cuz I don’t think I can afford much more than these ‘gourmet eggs’, seriously? They don’t even look like eggs!” 

“Yeah, let’s stay, my treat!” 

“Alright! What are you having then?” He asked, as he dove right into his menu. 

“I have no clue, but I’m pretty hungry, I’m thinking-” she stopped suddenly, looking over Jaune’s shoulder and around the booth to the door of the establishment. Jaune noticed the abrupt stop, and turned around to see what had caught Ruby’s eye, just in time to see a pair of thug-like people pointing at them from the lectern where the man that seated them was. Jaune thought that they looked familiar, and as they pushed passed the man and other guests in the restaurant, he realized that they wore similar clothes to the group that Ruby and he had beaten up at the fancy restaurant. 

With barely any time to react, Jaune stood up from the table to face the aggressors, Ruby joined him almost immediately. 

“Can we help you with anything?” he said calmly, crossing his arms across his chest. 

“Actually,” the man began, “you can. Y’see, we’re looking for these two punk kids that jumped a couple of our buddies last night, and we think you might be able to help us find ‘em,” he finished, glaring at Jaune and eventually shifting the glare over to Ruby. 

“Well, I don’t-” but Jaune didn’t finish, the woman interrupted him. 

“Eat this kid!” she shouted, her fist already on track to strike Jaune in the face, but before he could react, a small hand stopped the fist from colliding with his jaw. It was Ruby, and her hand held the fist steady as she stared down the woman that owned it. 

“What do you two want?” Ruby said simply, her silver eyes were cold and steely, refusing to move from the woman’s face. It actually scared Jaune from the little bit of Ruby’s face that he could see, standing behind her and all. He felt a shiver run down his spine, and saw the man take a step back before he spoke again. 

“W-we, just wanted to t-talk is all! My friend here, just got a li’l excited is all, seriously.” 

“Say what you have to say, and get out,” Ruby responded quickly, her stance nor her gaze faltering. 

“O-our boss, is upset a-at you guys! He told us to come here and teach you a lesson for hurting so many of his people!” 

“Does ha have any 'people' left?” Ruby asked. Her brows were beginning to furrow, and Jaune could swear that her eyes were darkening with every passing second. 

“He h-has around a hundred people still working for him, and some of them got sent down to that guy that they were gonna collect from last night, the guy you two protected!” 

“Alright, and where is your boss right now?” 

“I-I can’t tell you that-” Ruby shifted her ferocious glare at the man, her eyes had changed from silver to something much darker, “Where?” 

“The warehouse near the northern landing zone! Please don’t hurt me!” 

With that, Ruby’s eyes returned to their bright and kind selves, as she let go of the woman and pulled out Crescent Rose in the same motion, “Thanks, now I suggest you leave!” she said cheerily. Jaune felt a weird thump in his chest at the sight of Ruby changing her demeanor so quickly into her usual adorable state. He shrugged it off and followed as Ruby made her way to the exit, following far behind the two vandals that were running for their lives. 

“Damn Rubes, that was pretty scary in there,” Jaune began, unsheathing Crocea Mors. 

Ruby turned, her gaze was once again dark, “Really?” 

Jaune jumped back and almost fell right onto his ass at the sight of the same look Ruby had given to the thugs, but he quickly gathered himself up and continued, “still really cute though,” he teased. That earned him a solid punch in the arm. He felt his stomach rumble and groan in complaint at the promise and lack of delivery of breakfast, “Um, but what about breakfast?” 

“I wanna take care of this gang leader type, shouldn’t take too long, then we can come back and find a place have breakfast,” Ruby said simply, “Besides, that place didn’t have breakfast cookies.” 

“I don’t think breakfast cookies are a thing, Rubes.” 

“Really? Have you NEVER had one? They’re pretty much the best kind of cookie you can have!” 

“I’ll take your word for it Ruby, let’s just get moving so we can take care of this guy, I’m hungry and I can’t wait for very much longer.” 

“Okie Dokie!” 

***

As it turned out, Ruby had been right about the leader of the thugs, he was quite the pushover, surrendering almost immediately upon setting eyes on the pair, though Jaune chalked it up to him seeing Ruby’s silver eyes and knowing the myths that surrounded them and her. He had even offered them several thousand Lien, which they declined initially, but took when they remembered how much farther they had to go in their journey. Some Lien wouldn’t hurt. 

On their way out of the warehouse, they made sure to take notes on everything about the place and its “residents”, despite the bribe, they would turn the perps in immediately to the authorities, hoping that the info might help them make the appropriate arrests. 

Ruby skipped as they made their way down the street, happy that the detour on the way to breakfast land hadn’t taken up their whole day, in fact, it had only taken around an hour. Jaune was a little more serious, hoping that they wouldn’t get in trouble for accepting what may have been drug money, or worse, blood money. In the end however, the authorities were glad for the information and quickly set out to apprehend the criminals, hopefully ending the game they were running with the business owners of Ferrarosa. 

The walk from the station back into town left Jaune thinking, Ruby had actually been really terrifying back in the restaurant, her eyes had become a shade of silver so dark, he was sure some of Yang had rubbed off on Ruby. Ruby waving her hand in front of his face pulled him back to reality. 

“What’s up?” he asked, pushing her hand back down and transitioning into a very endearing hand holding. 

“What are you thinking about?” she asked back, giving in to his offer of holding hands. 

“Nothing much, really. Just thinking about how scary you got earlier with those two thugs in the fancy breakfast place,” he said, keeping his gaze forward. 

“Oh,” Ruby replied, also turning to look at the road laid out before them. 

“Is it…” 

“What?” 

“Well… Is it like, some new thing you can do now? Like, can you now channel your anger into making scary faces, or was it more simple than that?” 

“If I’m being honest Jaune… I mean, I don’t know how to put this…” she paused for a moment then turned to him with a serious expression, tugging on his hand so he would lean in, “ I was hungry... And they interrupted my breakfast… Nobody is getting away with that,” she whispered harshly, then, burst into laughter at the sight of Jaune’s shocked expression. 

“What?” 

“I’m just messing around Jaune! It’s just something I picked up, being around Yang for so long, watch!” and with that, her face became a grim mask with shadows impossibly stretched across it. 

“Geez,” was all that Jaune could say. 

“Is it really THAT scary?” Ruby asked, a little dejected. 

“Well… No, I mean, yes? I dunno, Ruby, what am I supposed to say when my girlfriend asks me if I think she’s scary?” Jaune questioned, genuinely perplexed by how he should answer, seemingly unaware of Ruby stopping dead in her tracks, that is, until he was pulled back as he kept walking, “hey, what’s wrong Ruby?” he turned around. 

“I’m… Your girlfriend?” Ruby asked, staring blankly at something so far away, it may not even have existed. 

Jaune reeled at the sudden realization at what he had just said, _shit! Do I really think of Ruby as my girlfriend? Wait what’s so wrong with that, anyway? Nothing… Right? Yeah, I mean, she’s amazing! What is there not to love? Wait! Love? Shit! Am I in love with her too?_

Ruby watched in amazement as Jaunes’ head tilted back and forth, and his face changed expressions from question, to amusement and then to shock. This went on for a few minutes, before she put her hand up to his cheek and forced him to look at her. 

“Ruby, I think I love you,” Jaune said, uncaring of the impact his brick wall of a sentence might have on the young Ruby. That impact, of course, sent Ruby straight to the ground, unconscious, “Oh! Ruby! A-are you okay?” he shouted, catching her head before it struck the sidewalk. She didn’t respond to him, but the steady rise and fall of her chest told him that she was still alive at least. He looked around for someone who might be able to help, and came up with just a bunch of people who looked on in shock at the sight of a girl passing out on the street. 

“Hey, kid,” came a raspy voice from behind Jaune, “what’d you do to my niece, punk?” 

It didn’t take long to recognize the voice, it was Qrow, Ruby’s uncle-not-really-uncle, and he sounded a little more than a little drunk. Jaune turned to look up at him, and was met with the red piercing gaze he had hoped to have gotten used to in the woods, truth is, he hadn’t gotten used to it at all. 

“Answer me,” he said as he clenched his fist. 

“I didn’t do anything! Really, she just passed out, I swear!” 

“Move!” Qrow commanded, bending down to pick up his young niece, “where are you staying?” he demanded, turning back to Jaune. 

“A-a place over on the East side! Dolcerosa Inn! I-I can take her, you don’t have to worry about it, sir!” 

Qrow simply grunted in response and made a dash in the direction of the inn where they were staying for the next couple of days. Jaune ran after him, unable to keep up, in fact, by the time he made it to the inn, Qrow was sitting in the living room, drinking casually from his flask. 

“Where’s Ruby?” Jaune wasted no time in asking. 

“She’s in bed, turns out she’s fine.” 

“I could have told you that!” Jaune said, a little upset that Qrow had acted so dramatically, “She just fainted!” 

“Why did she faint?” Qrow quickly replied. He turned to face Jaune and gave him a blank look that still managed to make Jaune squirm. 

“I, uh, I-I don’t know.” he stammered in reply. 

“Right, well, whatever, I’m heading out. Take care of her, got it?” Qrow said as he got up to leave. 

“O-of course!” 

“And kid?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Try not to drop bombs like that after a first date, will ya? I mean, how would you react if she had told you something major like ‘I’m pregnant!’?” 

“W-what?” 

“Ugh, don’t tell a girl you love her, after the first date, idiot. I mean, I get it, my niece is a badass. If she didn’t feel the same way, this would be a totally different conversation. Just reel it in a little.” 

“R-right,” honestly, Jaune was actually surprised that Qrow WASN’T being super overprotective of Ruby, it flew in the face of the kind of person Jaune thought he was. Then, a thought occurred to him, “Wait! Qrow, why AREN’T you being super overprotective of Ruby? I mean, and I’m just being honest here, you really don’t know a whole lot about me, right? Okay, maybe you know about my parents, or even know them personally, but as far as I know, you know jack about me! So why are you THIS okay with me dating your niece?” 

“Good question, kid,” Qrow replied thoughtfully, stopping on his way out the door, “I guess, it’s not really my responsibility to dote on her like a father. Sure, I love the kid, she’s smart, talented, and probably the most charismatic person I know, next to me,” he said with a cheeky grin on his face, “but really, I’m learning to keep my distance and leave the parenting to her parent, y’know. It’s entirely up to Tai to judge you and your relationship, sure he has no power over it, but he’s the only one besides you two, whose opinion you might take into consideration. Not mine.” 

“Oh,” was all that could escape Jaune’s mouth, he was in awe at the apparent maturity that Qrow could display when it came to Ruby, clearly, he thought about this kind of stuff a lot. 

“Aaannd, I already told Taiyang about you two,” Qrow added before he slammed the door behind him as he left. 

“What?” Jaune shouted, so loudly that Nora and Ren came running from the room that, Jaune supposed, they had now deemed as their shared room. 

“Jaune?” the duo said in unison, adjusting their clothes awkwardly as they stood in the doorframe. 

“It’s… I-it’s nothing, guys,” Jaune sighed dejectedly. 

“Okay?” they responded, once again in harmony. 

Inside, Jaune could feel his heart beating a thousand miles a minute, threatening to jump out of his chest as the words that Qrow had said. Was it true? Had he already told Taiyang about him dating Ruby? If it was true, Jaune couldn’t count on the likelihood that he would live for very much longer. He had almost no time to dwell on the dire situation Qrow had put him in, as Ruby stepped out from the room shyly, peeking around to see her team all standing about. 

“H-hey, guys…” 

“Ruby!” Jaune shouted as he leapt into the air. 

“Sorry!” she responded, a little surprised at Jaunes shock. 

“I-it’s fine Rubes! Just startled me. Y-your uncle just left, actually.” 

“R-really? Why was he here?” 

“He actually, uh, brought you here,” Jaune said, and Ruby noticed that he sounded a little off put, talking about her uncle. 

“What’s wrong Jaune?” 

“W-well…” Jaune said, stalling. 

“Qrow told your dad about you guys dating!” Nora said, bouncing up and down in place. 

“What?” Ruby shouted, before falling down once more, and passing out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh! Ho! Ho! What silly shenanigans will ensue now that Taiyang knows about Jaune and Ruby dating? Nobody knows (especially me)! Hope you enjoyed it and thanks again for reading!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone had a great Christmas (or any holiday you do or do not celebrate), and I hope you have a great new year! Here's the last chapter for this year, and I hope you enjoy it!

“What?” Taiyang repeated into his scroll, outrage visible on his handsome features. He stood outside his house with his hand resting on the doorknob, though he was no longer thinking of going inside. It was a relatively warm day, and he had planned on spending it indoors, where it was cooler, but now, he wasn’t so sure. 

“Oh, did you not know?” came a calm raspy voice from the other end. 

“Qrow, what the hell? How long have you known about this? Where are they right now? Has that little bastard done anything to her? I swear to all that is holy, if that kid touched a single hair on my little girl's head!” 

“Relax, Tai! They’ve gone out to dinner, that’s all!” 

Taiyang let his anger subside a fraction, “Really? Are you sure?” 

“Oh yeah! Jaune probably wouldn’t dare lay a hand on Ruby!” 

“Jaune? Arc?” Tai said harshly, catching his breath. 

“Yeah, I forgot! You know his parents don’t you?” 

“Knew… But yeah, they were pretty great people… Maybe their son isn’t that bad either.” he said hopefully. 

“That’s the spirit, Tai!” Qrow mused. He had immediately set to informing Ruby’s father of what was going on, once he saw them leave their hotel the morning after they had spent the night together. Deep down, he knew that Jaune was a good kid, but he couldn’t help messing with both him and Taiyang. 

“Alright, well… Thanks for telling me, Qrow. Pretty uncharacteristic of you to be so thoughtful of your family, just tell Ruby that it would be nice for her to let me know these sorts of things.” 

“Of course, but, one more thing!” 

“Yeah?” 

“They also slept together last night.” 

“What?” Tai shouted once more. In his sudden rage, he pulled the door to his house off its hinges with a loud crack. He grunted angrily and called out to Qrow, it was pointless however, Qrow had already hung up. 

Taiyang sighed, and he bent down to open his toolbox once more, his morning of repairs had just been extended. 

***

“Oh man, oh man…” 

“Jaune,” Ren said calmly. 

“It could be today!” 

“Ruby,” Nora pressed. 

“He’ll kill me!” 

“Jaune,” Ren said, a little more forcefully 

“How much did uncle Qrow tell him?” 

“Ruby!” Nora whisper shouted impatiently. 

“Aaaauuugghhh!” 

“Jaune!” Ren said authoritatively while still keeping his normally calm demeanor 

“What!” Ruby and Jaune shouted in unison, clearly in distress over what Qrow had said before leaving their suite. 

“Calm down!” Nora replied testily, not wanting to deal with the drama. 

“She’s right you two, it does you no good to worry so much. Besides, what makes you so sure that your father will come looking for you two?” 

“Because he’s crazy, you guys! Are you kidding me? I mean, he’s tied a boy to a chair for interrogating when he heard him call me cute, for heaven’s sake! If Qrow told him about anything, especially us sleeping in the same bed…” she paused as the thought popped into her head, “Jaune’s as good as dead.” Ruby deadpanned, stopping where she had been pacing, causing Jaune to crash into her back. With only a little hesitation, Jaune wrapped his arms around Ruby tightly, almost squeezing the air out of her in his fear, “Jaune! Let go please!” Ruby whined. Despite how much she found herself loving the way that he was hugging her right now, she was still fretting over the potential for an assault from her father. She let Jaune hold her for another moment, before she wriggled out of his embrace and continued her slow pacing across the living room floor. 

Jaune didn’t continue to pace behind Ruby, instead he stood, staring at some far off future that he could only glimpse in small flashing images. A young blonde man running down the street. An older man, tying another, younger man to the highest point of a building upside down. A distressed, young, red clad woman chasing after her father and boyfriend. 

Then, Jaune remembered an entirely different issue, one that had a less fatal outlook, but that was important just the same. Ruby remembered too, considering how she stopped and looked knowingly at Jaune. 

“Ruby, I-I,” he sputtered. 

“Yeah,” she interrupted. To tell the truth, Ruby hadn’t truly stopped thinking about what Jaune had said, though up until a moment ago, the full brunt of his confession hadn’t hit her. He said he loved her! It was insane, wasn’t it? After all, they had had one official date, she doubted that most people said that sort of thing after the first date. And sure, they had known each other for a long time, and maybe they had been really good friends back at beacon. Sure, they had sometimes spent several hours studying together in the library, or sitting on one of the many ledges that overlooked the main avenue simply talking. Maybe, Ruby had had thoughts about him in the past, some that she didn’t want to act on, based on his interest in others, but it was never something that she would call ‘love’. Now though, she was free to let out her feelings, and they made her do silly and great things, like running around like an idiot looking for breakfast, or letting herself be lulled to sleep by Jaune talking about the stars, or spending the night watching movies and making out. It felt good to allow her feelings some leeway in her decision making, and maybe one of those feelings was even ‘love’, but there was only one way to find out, “Jaune, I think… That we need to talk in private. 

***

Ruby and Jaune walked into Ruby and Nora’s room, which was lacking in Nora-esque items, having been replaced by Jaune’s possessions, she and Ren must have swapped everything while they were away at breakfast, and other activities. 

Strewn across the room, were Ruby’s pajamas, apparently swapped out for her new casual wear that she had bought along with her dress when she had gone shopping with Nora. Jaune chuckled to himself about the mess that had been left, and looked to Ruby, who was sitting very still on the edge of the bed. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words never came out. 

A ringing came from the pocket of her new shorts, it was her scroll, and on the screen was her father. With a tremble in her voice, she answered, “H-hey dad! What’s up?” 

“Where are you Ruby?” Taiyang answered, skipping completely over the pleasantries. 

“I-I’m in Mistral, dad! You knew that!” 

“Ruby. Where in Mistral are you, exactly? Have you made it to Haven Academy yet by any chance?” He said, his tone betraying the calm of his words. 

“N-no, we’re still a ways away, w-we stopped at a city, er v-village,” 

“Is it a city or a village?” 

“W-well, it’s more of a city, it’s called Ferrarosa and-” 

“Got it!” Taiyang said fiercely, ending the call. 

“Oh my glob… Jaune, he’s on his way! He’s coming, he has to be! Oh… crap! He’s going to be here any moment!” 

“Ruby, calm down! There’s not way he could get here so fast! The earliest flight your dad could have caught was less than two hours ago, right?” 

“That depends on when uncle Qrow told him about us! If he told him last night, then he could already be here, biding his time!” 

“C’mon, there’s no way he told him that long ago!” as if in reply to Jaune’s claim, a message popped onto Ruby’s scroll, from Qrow. 

_Qrow: Hey kiddo, don’t know if you’re awake yet, but just wanted to let you know that your old man should be arriving in Ferrarosa anytime now. He sounded pretty angry when I told him about you dating that punk this morning! Anyway, hope your reunion with Tai goes well._

Ruby’s face went white, she stared blankly at the screen for what seemed like an eternity before turning to face Jaune, “We gotta get you out of here Jaune! He’s going to be here any minute, quick!” 

“Really? Rubes, there’s no way that Qrow is serious, flights from Vale would take hours to arrive, and that’s to a major port, I doubt your dad could get a direct one here!” 

“You don’t know the kind of strings my dad could pull Jaune! Lots of people owe him favors, or would be more than willing to help him defend his little girl from some creep!” 

“Hey!” 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean that! Just saying that my dad can and will find a way to get here as fast as humanly possible, no obstacle is too large or unmovable.” proving her point, she looked at the door as a soft knock emanated from it. They froze, and a moment later, Nora peaked her head into the room. 

“Hey, what’s up Nora?” 

“Um, it’s your-” she was interrupted by the door swinging open fully to reveal a very angry looking Taiyang. 

“Ruby,” he said, stepping into the room. Ruby swore that she imagined it, but the light from the window and the fixtures seemed to dim when her dad stepped into the room. He continued with only a sideways glance at Jaune, “we need to talk, honey.” 

She took in a shaky breath and nodded at him, Taiyang turned and gently closed the door, creating a barrier between them, and Ren and Nora. He went to the small coffee table that was near one wall, and sat at one of the comfortable leather armchairs. He motioned for them to sit down as well, and they took the last remaining armchairs. 

Ruby was the first to speak, “so… What’s up dad?” she asked, trying very hard to sound less frightened than she was at the idea of her dad having flown across half of Remnant to interrogate them. 

“How long?” he asked back, not sounding horribly angry, but his now red eyes told a different story. 

“W-well, it’s only been a few days,” Ruby began, looking to Jaune for his nod in the affirmative. 

“So did it start here in Ferrarosa, or out in the forest?” 

“Why does that matter, dad?” 

“It doesn’t, but I want to be clear on everything going on here, Ruby.” 

“Right, well… It was in the forest,” she paused with a thoughtful look on her face, “we were probably around thirty miles away, since it took us a little over fourteen hours to get here,” she finished, satisfied with her answer. 

Jaune released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, when Taiyang sighed deeply and his eyes returned to a less malicious color. Up until this moment he had been sure that Ruby’s father would have raised hell after arriving, but he was surprised at how calm Taiyang was. 

“And when did you two start having sex?” he said abruptly, red flashing briefly across his irises before settling back to their normal color. 

Ruby inhaled sharply when Taiyang said that, and she almost passed out right then and there, but Jaune reached out to give her hand a supportive squeeze before he turned to answer the question, “we haven’t, er, w-we haven’t had s-sex sir,” he said, feeling weird saying the word ‘sex’ around not only Ruby but her father as well. 

Taiyang glared at Jaune before turning to Ruby, “is that true?” 

“Y-yes, dad. 

“But you two did sleep together at least last night, right?” 

“Y-yeah, well, we just kinda fell asleep in the middle of-” Ruby stopped herself for a moment, biting her lip at the thought that she was about to tell her dad that she had been making out with Jaune, “we were, m-making out, and then we just kinda passed out sprawled on the bed!” 

Taiyang physically flinched when Ruby said, that, and it looked like all the anger from before was finally going to let its way out in a manner that would probably level the entire hotel. 

“Okay, so what I’m hearing is that this probably isn’t just some game that mister Arc is running on you Ruby, and that this might even actually be his first relationship, not just yours.” 

They both nodded slowly. 

“So, that probably means you two aren’t too deep yet, right?” 

Jaune hesitated before nodding but Ruby just quirked her head at that. 

“Well, I think that I don’t need to take any serious action with you, Jaune, but I do have to do something.” 

The air became eerily still as Jaune and Ruby waited to hear what her dad would say. 

“I think it’s simple, you two break up right now, before it gets any more serious and everything should be fine,” Taiyang said, moving to stand. Ruby beat him to it. 

“What?” she shouted, throwing her chair back with the force of her sudden stance, “we aren’t breaking up!” she shouted, this time moving to stand in front of her father. 

“Ruby,” he replied calmly, “this is for the best, trust me.” 

“You are absolutely insane! Why do we have to break up? We’re doing nothing wrong!” 

“Just trust me, sweetie, nothing good is going to come of this relationship between you two.” 

Ruby blanched at that, “What is that supposed to mean? Do you think that he’s not good enough for me?” 

“Of course not Ruby-” 

“Then what is it? What reason could you have to want us to not be together anymore?” she was still shouting and her eyes began to turn red; with rage or tears, Jaune didn’t know. 

“Don’t shout at me, Ruby. I am doing this to protect you! You have no idea what you’re getting into with this relationship, the world is a dangerous place for you and him!” 

“What?” Ruby got quieter, a little surprised by the response. 

“There’s a war looming over us Ruby, you could’ve died at Beacon, and now you’re going to Haven where the very same thing could happen again? Something huge is going on here, and it’s no time to be caught up in things like relationships!” 

She turned to Jaune before responding, “I-I… I don’t care about any of that dad! I’ve been through so much bullshit-” 

“Watch your mouth, young lady!” he warned. 

“No, dad,” she said calmly, “I’ve been through way too much bullshit to just sit down and accept this. I can make my own decisions! We have something, I know it! I felt it when he asked me out and when he kissed me for the first time. I felt it for sure when he said he loved me, I know that we’ll survive whatever-” 

“He said he loved you?” Taiyang interrupted, turning his wary gaze on Jaune. When she didn’t reply, he turned fully towards Jaune and repeated, “you said you loved her?” 

For the second time this whole conversation, Jaune spoke, “y-yes, sir.” 

“Okay… Why did you do that?” 

“What?” Jaune replied, a little confused by the sudden seriousness that he had adopted. 

“Why did you tell her that you loved her? Did you really think that was a good idea?” 

“W-well, It’s just that I-” 

“You should know as well as I do what’s going on Jaune, you’re an Arc after all. I’ve known your parents for a long time, and not one of you was nearly as dense as you let on, so tell me that you didn’t see the warning signs for all the crazy things that are going to go down.” 

Jaune froze. When he thought back, he realized that he did know, somewhere deep down he knew that Beacon was only the beginning. From Pyrrha and the fall maiden, to the battle that had taken Beacon down. All the signs were there, Ozpin and his group were preparing for war, a war that they had needed Pyrrha and the fall maiden’s powers for. With the powers now out of their control, Jaune realized how dark the future was beginning to look. He looked at Taiyang and nodded grimly, he should’ve stopped to think about this sooner, but at least he realized sooner rather than later. 

“Ruby, if you’re going to survive this, you need to be focused on the task at hand, you can’t lose that focus for even a moment. You have to see why this is for your own good.” 

“No, I don’t, I don’t see why I can’t be with Jaune and fight to protect people as well.” 

Taiyang sighed, “I figured, you’re just like your mom Ruby,” he said before turning once more to Jaune, “I think it may not be a good idea for you to be here anymore, Jaune.” 

Jaune hesitated but then nodded in agreement, Ruby would never see her dad’s side of the argument, and if she didn’t, then Taiyang couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t keep seeing Jaune without him there to stop it. 

“I’m leaving later tonight when my buddy gets back, you’ll come with me and we can take you back home.” 

“What, no!” Ruby protested, “you can’t make him leave!” 

Taiyang didn’t reply, he just looked to Jaune for his confirmation. 

“I’ll get my things ready, sir,” he said, not breaking eye contact. With one final nod at Jaune, Taiyang moved to hug Ruby, she used her semblance to retreat to the other side of the room and glared at her father. He sighed and left the room with less fanfare than he had entered with. He left the door wide open as he did and Jaune let out a shaky breath. 

At the door, Nora watched silently, not a single word or breath escaping her mouth, Ren walked up calmly behind her and pulled her away by her arm, leaving Jaune alone with Ruby. He took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak, Ruby beat him to the punch, “How could you?” was all that she let slip from her now trembling mouth, the words more a whimper than anything. 

“I didn’t exactly have a choice Ruby. Your dad was very clear about that, at least this way-” 

“We could have convinced him, Jaune!” she was shouting now, a heartbreaking tremble in her voice, “he shouldn’t have that kind of power over us, to make you do whatever he says! We’ve been out here for months, he has zero right to boss us around like this!” 

“Ruby, he has a point though, maybe we shouldn’t be together, it’s a-” 

“What?” Ruby whimpered, she was taken aback by what he was saying, “how could you say that we shouldn’t be together?” 

“It’s a dangerous world Ruby, like your dad said, we’re on the verge of something huge! And you are leading the charge into this war that we know nothing about, it’s the epitome of danger and not the kind of conditions that foster the healthiest relationships!” 

“So, is this what you were thinking before we started dating? Have you been stringing me along this whole time, knowing that we wouldn’t be together for very long, that you could use this ‘imminent doom’ to leave me at any point?” 

“No! Ruby, I want nothing more than to be with you, but your father made a very good point! We-” 

“And so it made leaving me just that much easier, huh?” 

“No! Ruby, please-” 

“If you are so okay with leaving me…” she began, “Did you actually mean it when you said you loved me?” she whispered meekly. Her face was turned to the ground, and she hugged herself tightly, as though she were afraid of falling apart in that moment. Jaune felt his heart break a little at every single one of her words; of course he loved her but it was for the best, wasn’t it? He got up and stepped towards Ruby, who shied away from him, turning her face up to him, now filled with rage. 

“I meant it, Rubes. I-I don’t know how to reassure you of that, but I did mean it when I told you, and I mean it now. I love you.” he whispered soothingly. 

“Then why are you okay with leaving me?” she said, a slight hiss behind her words. 

“Because it’s for the best Ruby. Do you really think that I would want to leave you? I want you to keep on moving forward, you have amazing and important things that you need to accomplish, and being with me isn’t on the list of amazing and important things that you need to do. You and all our friends have a world to save.” 

“I don’t care if you think that, I want to be with you. Isn’t it enough that I do?” 

“It is for me Rubes, but not for the rest of the world, not if you really want to protect all of them. You need to focus on that.” 

Ruby looked away, and with one final glance at Jaune, she disappeared from sight, the only indication that she had ever been there at all, were the rose petals that led out of the room. 

***

She didn’t know where she was going, but the wind in her face felt too good for her to stop, and before she knew it, she had arrived at a cliff with a single tree growing right on its edge. She huffed impatiently and looked around for a moment, then she set off climbing the solitary tree. 

The branches of the tree extended out over the cliff's edge, letting Ruby see the forest below, where rocks were strewn about as if they had fallen all the way from the top of the cliff. She admired the view below and beyond into the horizon. The sun was only now beginning its downward path and the sky was littered with the fluffiest clouds Ruby had ever seen. In the distance, she saw mountains and forests, all beautifully green. She looked around her for a more secure branch to sit on, and found one facing back the way she had come. She climbed up to it and nestled in to take a nap. 

An hour or so later she awoke to the incessant caw of a bird. When she opened her eyes, she saw a crow sitting in front of her, tilting its head in curiosity at the young girl. She scoffed and turned the other way, but once again it cawed. In spite of the crow, she went back to sleep. 

Later once more, she was startled awake by the another sound, a rustle of leaves. When she sat bolt upright, she saw Qrow, sitting on the branch next to hers, mindlessly kicking his leg back and forth as he looked up at the sky. Ruby felt happy to see him, if only for a moment, before remembering that it had been Qrow who told her dad about Jaune and her. She made to drop from the tree, when Qrow spoke, “sorry kiddo,” he said in his raspy voice. 

“For what? Telling my dad about Jaune and me, or for all the other times that you’ve been a giant insufferable asshole?” she spat, venom coating every word. 

“Geez, kid,” Qrow replied, a slight smirk playing at his lips, “I never knew you had it in you to lash out like that, especially at me.” 

“Yeah, whatever,” she said dismissively, making once more to climb out of the tree. 

“Listen, Ruby. I really am sorry for what happened. Honestly, I didn’t think that Tai would go out of his way to force you two apart like that. I underestimated how big of an asshole he could be.” 

“Then you’re in good company,” she replied sarcastically, turning away. 

“Aw geez, you really are pissed about this aren’t you?” 

“Qrow, you ruined what was basically my first relationship! How could I not be at least a little mad at you?” 

“First? What about that little kid that Tai tied up back in Patch?” 

“He called me cute and gave me a flower, that hardly counts.” 

“Well, what about the kid that took you out when you were at Signal?” 

“Are you serious? We went for a walk, he kissed my cheek and then he ran away when my dad ripped the door off its hinges.” 

“Right…” Qrow said as if remembering something. 

“Listen Uncle Qrow, I really am upset right now, could you just… I don’t know, leave me alone for a while? I get that you might actually be sorry, but I really liked Jaune, and he basically just admitted that he was okay with breaking up with me.” 

“Did he really?” 

“Yes, now please leave,” she lied. She knew that Jaune hadn’t been okay with it, but it made her feel better to be angry at him than sympathetic towards him. 

“Ruby, I didn’t mean for this to happen, I just thought that Tai would give your boyfriend a rough time, not make him leave you.” 

“Qrow, just drop it, please leave me alone.” 

“Fine… I know how much you liked him and I’m sorry again, kiddo.” 

Qrow jumped out of the tree, and was gone a second later. Ruby thought about what he’d said, he probably hadn’t planned on the breakup, he had done things like that before anyway. Many boys had made it clear that they liked Ruby in the past, and found themselves at the mercy of her father, courtesy of Qrow and his need to be an overprotective jerk. Even with his past history of doing precisely what he had done this time, Ruby couldn’t find it in her to forgive him, he had known how much Ruby liked Jaune, hadn’t he? He had said as much. 

***

Jaune would spend the rest of the day packing his things, preparing for the flight back home with his escort, Taiyang Xiao Long. More than once, the thought would pass his mind to go and search for Ruby, after all, he had several hours before his ride would get back to Ferrarosa; but in the end he decided to stay. Their relationship had been short lived, spanning only about a week, or if measured by official dates, a couple days. Yet, with how little time he had spent ‘dating’ Ruby, he found that he really felt attached, at least, more so than one probably should after dating so briefly. 

When his scroll let out a soft tone, indicating a message from Taiyang, he gathered his few things and went off to the port. He thought heavily about Ruby on the way, how could he not. He thought about when they had first met, and established the awkward friendship that would grow into something more. He remembered all those nights that they spent in the library together, studying, giving each other advice on leading their teams and even just talking in hushed tones, afraid to bother anyone who happened to be at the library at such a late hour. His mind even recalled the first time they had wandered onto one of the ledges of the arches that overlooked the main avenue of the academy. They had been wandering the campus, exploring as they talked about things that may or may not have mattered, when Ruby tapped Jaune on the shoulder before she took off running. Before too long, they were running back and forth across the quad and the main avenue, when Ruby managed to evade Jaune by climbing to the top of one of the arches. By the time Jaune got to the top, Ruby was staring out at the great tower and seemed mesmerized by the flare of color that was the sunset. Jaune too, found himself in awe at how amazing the sunset was, and by the time either of them knew it, the sun was gone and the soft twinkle of stars and the glow of the moon was all that illuminated them. It may have been then that Jaune fell in love with Ruby, the way she had sat so still and stared at the setting sun and then the clusters of stars directly above, was a beautiful sight to behold. Even if he didn’t know it then, it definitely was the start of something, even maybe; love. 

Now, however, he stood in front of the lowering airship, watching as Taiyang conversed with who Jaune assumed was the aforementioned buddy. They spoke animatedly, gesturing wildly and moving ecstatically as they laughed. Jaune found himself feeling a little angry. 

When they were finally ready to set off, the buddy left them, giving them plenty of time to talk, or as Jaune would prefer: to sit in silence and ignore each other. Naturally though, Taiyang spoke up, “Are you ready, Jaune?” 

“I mean, do I really have a choice?” Jaune replied coldly. 

“Fair point,” Taiyang said without skipping a beat, “how long has it been since you’ve seen your p-” 

“If you don’t mind, I would rather not talk right now,” Jaune interrupted, stepping forward as the airship’s loading platform lowered. 

“Alright, that’s fine… I do have one question for you though.” 

“Okay, that’s fine too.” 

“Did you really like Ruby?” 

Jaune froze at the question, it had startled him actually. He took a moment, after all; this was the moment he had needed, the moment in every movie or book where the protagonist lets his emotions and feelings towards his significant other pour out. The point where the overprotective father realizes that they were wrong, where the pleas of the young man fall upon listening ears, and the love he desires is allowed to be. This was his chance to convince Ruby’s father that he had been wrong to forbid their relationship, after all, he had been wrong… Hadn’t he? Jaune wasn’t so sure anymore. And so, he turned and stared Taiyang straight in the eyes, his gaze not leaving for a second, and he spoke, “of course I do… But like you said, she has much more important things to think about.” 

“That’s it?” 

“I’m not going to beg you to let us be together, if that’s what you were hoping,” Jaune said, still retaining the confidence he had displayed initially. 

“Would you go back to her if I said that you two could be together?” Taiyang said. He had said it so casually that it actually surprised Jaune. 

“Maybe, I won’t think about that though, I know that you won’t suddenly come to a realization about love or anything, we’re just two dumb kids, I know that. Let’s just get this over with already, so I can get home, and you can go and ruin someone else’s day.” Jaune said, turning and walking to his seat with a steady resolve. 

“Right,” Taiyang replied, a little peeved at the comment. 

It had been stupid to say that to Ruby’s father, Jaune knew that, but he wanted him to know that he wasn’t happy with what he had done, even if it had been the right thing to do to help Ruby. 

***

In the end Jaune sat at the far end of the small ship, leaving Taiyang the option of the remaining five seats. And in the end, they sat in opposite corners, riding in complete silence. 

Despite everything, Jaune could only think about Ruby, even hours later when he finally arrived home to the warm embrace of his family who were curious about why he had returned so soon. Even the next day, when his youngest sister found him sulking in the unfinished treehouse in their backyard and he could give no good reason as to why he stared up at the shattered moon above. Jaune even thought of Ruby when he realized the mistake he had made, he thought about her for the weeks, months, and eventually years that would pass before he saw her again. Each time he remembered her, he would look to the moon that hung sadly in the sky, and whisper her name, hoping that somehow, somewhere, she was listening. 

***

Ruby would spend the next week in a state of regret, regret for not being more insistent in defending her and his relationship to the judge jury and executioner that her father had become, but mostly, she regretted running. She regretted running from Jaune that day and in so doing, not seeing him again for what seemed like an eternity. She would find that she walked into the living room of the house they were staying at near Haven Academy, hoping to find Jaune with a smile warm enough to fight off a blizzard, and suddenly remembering all too well what had happened only days before. For a while, she even woke to the sound his voice, only to realize that it was just a gentle breeze that had suddenly picked up late at night, and every time that happened, she looked to the moon and fought the urge to cry. 

It was several months later, in the middle of dinner, when Weiss finally broached the subject in her usual, socially unaware of people’s feelings sort of way. 

“Are you going to sulk for the rest of your life about this, you dolt?” 

Ruby never responded, and it would be Yang who chastised Weiss later that night, before they all went to bed, about being more sensitive. Weiss countered that there was almost no way that Jaune wouldn’t come back at some point to help with the struggles of Remnant, and in doing so, reignite the spark that he and Ruby had. Yang neither agreed nor disagreed, and both would be heartbroken to find out that in fact, Jaune would be missing entirely from the war that came, that he almost seemed to have fallen off the face of Remnant altogether. Even when it seemed impossible that he wouldn’t at least appear to save the reinstated team RWBY from an almost fatal encounter with Salem, he still neglected to show up. It would end up being the mythic silver-eyed warrior that would save the day, with both her eyes and the powers of the fall maiden, winning the battle and eventually the war. After the fact, she would put on her mask of unwavering happiness, despite how hurt she had been that even when she was in greatest need, the one person she had hoped would somehow save her, had not. 

***

When the war was said and done, and the casualties were tallied, the remaining huntsmen mourned in their own little corner of the world. Team RWBY had spent two years fighting the scourge that was Salem and her Grimm, and afterwards, they found that they needed some time to themselves before continuing to protect the world from whatever new obstacle might come their way. 

Ruby went along with Yang to their old home in Patch, where their father most likely still suffered through the psychological damage that Watts had caused to him and many others. She didn’t go back into the house, even after all this time, she couldn’t stand to meet her father’s gaze, let alone be in the same room as him. After all, he had ruined the one relationship she had had with who she knew, after two years, was the only person she had cared so deeply for, and no amount of apology or regretful messages could ever be enough to forgive that. So when Yang came back out a minute later, realizing that Ruby hadn’t followed, and noticed that she was gone, she could do nothing but sigh and return to her father. 

Weiss was ecstatic to see Ruby so soon after she had supposedly gone home to Patch, and welcomed her to stay with her, in the home that now belonged to her. When Winter arrived a day later, the three girls set about to training, hoping to not lose their edge after the war that had torn the world asunder. Even without using the supernatural powers bestowed upon her by her eyes and inheritance of a maiden, Ruby found it too easy to take on Weiss or even Winter, and even when they attacked her together, she was able to fend them off, finding that the intense training she had done during the last two years had done her a world of good. They still managed to subdue her eventually, and when they did, Ruby smiled at them and thanked them before going to her room. 

The next morning, Weiss came to Ruby’s room with breakfast, and she gladly scarfed down the pancakes that were brought before her. That day, they spent together, mostly talking or watching movies, but happier than they had been in years. By the end of the night, Weiss finally gathered up the courage she had been wrestling for all day, and in one quick motion, kissed Ruby chastely on the lips. The girl didn’t recoil, she didn’t run away screaming, no, all she could do was smile sadly, a smile that failed to touch her eyes, and Weiss knew that Ruby couldn’t return the sentiment. Things were awkward for a couple days, but soon they fell back into the rhythm of being best friends, and Weiss found solace in the fact that she hadn’t ruined her friendship with Ruby. 

Ruby never visited Blake, but received word from both her and Yang on how she was dealing with the loss of Sun, who, despite having broken up with Blake a year before the war, had still caused her an unbelievable amount of grief. Towards the end of the hiatus, Yang and Blake revealed their new relationship to their families, or what remained, and to their team. No one could have been happier to hear the news. 

***

Two months later, RWBY was back in action. Together they did what had to be done to keep the people safe, and it made them happy to be together. Ruby was happy, she truly was, and though she never saw Jaune in those two years she had spent all but alone, she was glad he had been right about the amazing and important things that she would accomplish in her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huh, I didn't expect that! Aw well, that's how life is sometimes! Just gotta keep moving forward.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading, and lemme know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... As of this chapter, things will probably go in a direction that may be unexpected or even not liked too much by some people. There will be some: Actual Character, Made Up Character interactions that some people may not be a fan of, but I have a plan in place for where this story will go. It may seem like a rough ride, or at some points even an unnecessary series of events that are going on, but everything will sort itself out one way or another. So as usual, enjoy, and thanks in advance for reading!

“One more,” the voice said soothingly, “you need to drink.” 

“What?” A young man replied. From his position, he could see a cloaked figure looking down on him, and the ceiling of a darkened room which looked to be made of marble. 

“C’mon, you should be getting better now, you need to drink more!” the voice replied impatiently, lifting his head gently and pressing a glass to his lips. 

The young man drank the water energetically, before the glass got pulled away again, “I thought I needed to drink more?” 

“Not that much!” the voice laughed, laying his head back down on the fluffy pillow, “I’ll be back soon with more water and some soup, just get some rest, sir knight.” 

“Knight?” the young man replied. 

“It’s just a joke,” the voice, which the young man could now see belonged to a woman, said, “we don’t know your name, we figure you should decide your own, so we call you knight; I call you sir knight.” 

“Why?” 

“We found you with a very nice shield and sword, and you looked about as knightley as they come I suppose,” with one last nod of her head, the woman left the room. 

Sleep came quickly, and the young man’s dreams were clouded with worries, where was he? WHO was he? That last thought stirred him from his sleep and made him sit up with a start. His breathing was ragged and he found that his heart nearly pounded out of his chest, the same woman from before came into the room, and she rushed to the bed to calm the man down. 

“Woah! Hey, calm down,” she said, placing a gentle hand on his chest, “everything is fine, relax!” 

“Who the hell am I? Where am I? Who are you? The fuck is going on?” the young man said, fear playing clearly on his face. 

“I-I don’t know!” the woman replied, a small tremble in her voice, “We don’t know anything about you, we found you in the forest, we just took you in to take care of you! I’m sorry.” 

His breathing began to slow, but the racing of his heart wouldn’t stop, he wasn’t sure if he could trust these people, and if no one knew who he was, he needed to find someone who did, “Okay, sorry, okay… Do you… Do you at least know someone who would know who I am?” “I think I might know someone, but… You need to get better before we let you get out of bed, let alone go out searching for information.” 

“I’m fine, please,” the young man pleaded, “I need to know who I am!” he attempted to sit up and push the woman out of the way, but she pressed down gently on his chest; the young man groaned in response, and grabbed the woman’s hands to lessen the pressure on his sore body. The woman flinched when he placed his hands on hers, and she quickly pulled her hands back, opting to pick up the bowl of soup she had brought in with her. 

“Here, y-you should eat some, it’s garlic spinach,” the woman said softly. She spooned a portion up and held it to his mouth, her hand trembled slightly and she kept her face turned down as she waited for him to take the spoonful. 

“I’m not hungry,” was all that he said before turning the other way on the bed so that he no longer faced her. 

“Please, you need to eat, you won’t get better if you don’t.” 

“What I need to do is go find someone who knows who the hell I am! I’ve only been awake a handful of minutes and I realized I know nothing! The longer I think, the more I realize how little I remember. The only memories I have are of a couple minutes ago when you woke me up,” he was losing the edge in his voice, and replacing it gradually with a whimper that threatened to break into full on crying. He heard it, but he was realizing that he didn’t care, it became difficult for him to even know what memories actually were since; the harder he thought, the less he could remember, even earlier when he had first woken up. A single memory popped back into his head, clear as day but the memory faded as he grasped for even the most tenuous string of coherent thought, hoping he could use it to bring him to other memories. He shuddered and spoke again, “I just remembered… I just remembered something and I managed to forget it again. I know nothing about my life before today, and it makes me feel like I may not even have existed.” 

“O-of course you existed!” she replied, hoping to somehow ease the existential nature of his doubts, “We’ll get you to remember, I know we will! We just need… A little bit of time to...” she hesitated as if she had suddenly remembered something herself. 

“What?” 

“Hm?” she said, forgetting that she had been talking. 

“Why’d you stop talking?” 

“I-I need to go,” she said quickly, rushing to leave. 

“Wait!” but he was too late, she was gone and so was his soup, “I actually wanted some…” 

Later, a few hours or so (he couldn’t really see an obvious passage of time), the woman came back into the room, this time with her hood pulled back so that it no longer shrouded her face. She smiled at him and gestured at him with the tray she held, which had a bowl of soup, different to the one she had brought earlier. She set it down on the bedside table and sat on the edge of his bed before speaking. 

“Sorry that it’s only soup today… We think it’s best to see how you handle it before we give you something heartier. If you’re up to it though, I’ll make sure to get you something tomo-” 

“Where am I?” he interrupted, disregarding her soup and promises of less soup. 

“W-what?” 

“I need to know, where am I?” he said again, more sternly than before. 

She sighed and got up from the bed, removing the hood of her robe completely as she did so. When she turned to face him, he noticed the two fluffy ears that stuck out from atop her head. But before he could say anything about the protrusions, she held up a hand, “as you can see, I’m a faunus, a wolf faunus to be precise. You may or may not know about a group called the White Fang. They became pretty renowned after the war, thanks to their leader, and well, they actually started accomplishing what they had set out to do from their founding almost two decades ago; faunus were all being treated like everyone else. Well, we’re kind of a branch of the White Fang, and we are sort of like a vigilante group, we help with the problems that we know the White Fang won’t. We’re not officially recognized, but lots of people know we exist. You, are currently in our main headquarters in southeast Menagerie.” she said and then stopped to give the man some time to take it all in, “we found you a few months ago, outside of a temporally locked building where Salem used to keep hundreds of prisoners. We figured that you’d been imprisoned there, and once she was defeated, whatever she was using to hold the place in stasis, went with her. Honestly though, we don’t know anything about you, there were several other prisoners, some were out of here within the week, and some are just waking up. You’re one of the few that has no memory of anything before waking up.” 

“Okay… So you’re a faunus, which is like a human animal hybrid thing, right?” he asked. She nodded curtly. 

“And you are part of a vigilante group; not officially with the White Fang, which strives to get rid of discrimination against faunus. But your group does more of the legally inadvisable things?” he asked, brows knitting together. She nodded again. 

“I was Salem’s prisoner, but she’s been defeated so I was set free, and now nobody knows who I am? Who is, er, was Salem? What was she trying to do? I have so many more questions!” 

“I’ll answer them all, best I can. Promise,” she said, sitting down once again. 

“O-okay…” he replied, smiling weakly. 

“Right now though, you should eat some soup, egg drop soup this time!” she said cheerily, picking up the bowl, “think you can eat on your own?” 

“Um, yeah, I think I got it,” he replied, as he took the bowl. He expertly ate the soup and looked at her curiously when he was done. 

“What is it?” she asked, looking a little flustered under his intense gaze. 

“Do you like being pet?” he said, almost to himself. She flinched at his intimate question, her face turning bright red before she answered. 

“Y-yeah, but it’s kinda-” 

“C-Can I pet you?” he interrupted. 

“Y-yeah,” she whispered, turning away from him. 

***

A few days later, the young man was sitting on the edge of his bed, waiting for the wolf faunus that had been taking care of him. Today, he was finally allowed to leave the confines of his room, and she was going to give him a tour of the place. 

She rushed in, no longer feeling obliged to wear the hood of her robe, and greeted him with the widest smile he had seen on her. Without wasting a single moment, she grabbed him by the hand and led him down the well lit hallway which was made of smooth marble and the occasional engraving. 

“You seem really excited for today!” he said as he was pulled forward at breakneck speed. 

“Yeah, I asked Ilia if I could show you my favorite place, and she said yes! So of course I’m excited!” 

“Alright, well, where are we going then?” 

“Well, I do have to show you everything, so I figured we could just end with the best place in this whole compound!” 

“Alright, lead the way, miss!” 

“Ugh, don’t call me miss! You know my name!” 

“Right, right. Uh…” 

“How have you forgotten already?” 

“I have amnesia!” 

“Nice try, but you know that amnesia doesn’t work like that.” 

He slumped his shoulders in response. 

“C’mon,” she said, “quit messing around!” and then, she punched his arm playfully. 

“Ow! Okay, okay! Sorry Lu, where are we starting?” 

“The cafeteria!” she said as they pushed through a large set of wooden doors. Inside, several people walked to and fro with trays full of delicious looking food. A few stopped to wave at Luna and him, but for the most part they went unnoticed. 

“Wow, this looks awesome!” he said, turning in a full circle to observe the room. It was huge, big enough that he couldn’t see the details on the faces of those on the other side of the room. The walls were a very smooth looking stone, with beautiful marble arches that reached to the ceiling above. Red cloth hung from the apex of each arch and connected them all, drooping down to just about the top of his head. The floor was carpeted with a red and white rug with intricate golden designs. 

He was in awe of the detail that had been put into decorating the cafeteria, before Luna interrupted him, “Just wait till you see the rest of the place! We’re seeing the rest of the rooms next, which isn’t too exciting, but then we’re going to the tower, where we have conference rooms and Ilia’s office at the top! Trust me, they’re way cooler than this!” 

“Is Ilia’s office the place you wanted to show me?” 

“No, of course not!” she said, suddenly excited again. 

***

“This, is what I wanted to show you!” she said, throwing open the doors to a large room filled with training equipment, and with a set of doors that led to another area outdoors. 

“Woah!” he said, “I didn’t think there was a place that could be cooler than Ilia’s office!” 

“Told you!” she replied, running ahead to one of the soft mats that sat on the floor of the room, “There are ten of these mats in here, and outdoors there are five arenas on slightly raised platforms. In here is for training and exercise, outside is usually where we have duels and the like!” 

“That’s amazing,” he sighed, staring at the cherry blossoms that encircled the large outdoor area, leaving only gaps enough for the occasional bench along the perimeter. 

Inside, there was more training equipment than he would think necessary, but Luna informed him that they had over a hundred people, and that they actually had a secondary training area on the other side of the compound with more space, but less of the cool stuff. 

“Wow, so this is your favorite place in this whole castle, huh?” 

“It’s not a castle! It used to be, sure, but it’s just home for us, and Ilia insists that we call it the compound.” 

“Sure, alright, but why is this your favorite place?” 

“Well, I guess that it’s really just because I’ve spent so much time here. I actually lived here before the White Fang Enforcers, moved into this place.” she said, looking up at the ceiling longingly, “I found this abandoned place a couple years before the war, for the most part, it was still furnished, this training area had a few sets of weights and some practice weapons, so I just trained… Alone.” 

“Why were you alone?” 

“Near as I can tell, I’ve always been alone, only saw my mom once, and that was before she was killed, when I was a small kid. I didn’t like any of my extended family members, so I just ran away before they could take custody of me. I’ve been all over Anima and Menagerie, but I settled down when I found this place. It’s pretty close to a few villages, but it’s secluded enough to make me feel safe.” 

“Right. So what did you do, besides train?” 

“I did some odd jobs for people in the villages, usually just errands, but sometimes they were more… Intense? Yeah, I’d have to go out and kill Grimm every now and then, pretty rough stuff, but I actually enjoyed it after a while,” she took a moment to admire the room, “then the war happened. By then, the White Fang moved a small portion of its people here, and they had me help them get situated. We helped as much as we can, and when it all ended, Ilia became the leader of this branch, being placed in charge of it by the new leader, Blake.” 

“When did it become the WFE?” 

“About a year after the war, Blake had rallied the White Fang to help the humans with the war and had shown them that there was a better way to fight for equality. The WFE happened because Ilia wanted a group that WOULD do all the things that the White Fang wouldn’t. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not bad, we understand that hurting humans isn’t the right way to go about things, but sometimes, violence is the only thing that people respond to. So we take care of actual bad guys, we never kill them, but we do what we can to stop them from hurting others, and sometimes that means hurting them, other times it means locking them up.” 

“Is this not legal then? Why are you a vigilante group?” 

“We aren’t officially recognized by the White Fang, even though Ilia and Blake are always in contact, they can’t endorse what we do. We do break some laws, dealing justice to bad people when you’re not the law enforcement isn’t the most legally sound thing you can do.” 

“Wow, and you’ve been here through it all?” 

“Yup, I’m Ilia’s second in command, though I still do a lot of work out in the field, so I have to keep training, and that means spending a lot of time in here. That’s why it’s my favorite place, it’s the place I’ve been the most, and the only place where I’m ever really relaxed.” 

“Huh.” 

“What?” she asked as she turned around to face him. 

“That’s actually… Really cool,” he replied calmly, not portraying the excitement that he felt. 

She smiled at him in response, before gesturing him to her, “wanna spar with me? I really want to see if you knew how to use that sword and shield.” 

“I’d love to, but I really want to meet that person that you said that might know who I am.” 

“Right, I almost forgot about that! If we hurry, we might be able to make it before she leaves!” 

***

“So who is this person?” 

“It’s Blake, actually! She’s about our age, and comes to visit the nearby villages every few months. I figure that with her connections, she might be able to find out who you are! I tried getting Ilia’s help, but she wasn’t really for it, y’know? She said it didn’t really matter who you were, just who you become. Wouldn’t even give me Blake’s info so I could send her a picture of you.” 

“You have a picture of me?” 

“Eep!” Luna squealed, “N-no! I don’t!” 

He smiled at that, “Suuuureee, y’know that I saw you with your scroll out yesterday? I was wondering why you pointed it at me.” 

“Shut up!” she said before punching him, not as playful as she usually did. 

***

Blake wasn’t at the village, and a kind old lady informed the duo that she had actually left only about half an hour earlier. Dejected, they decided to walk around the little village which for the most part, consisted of some small houses, a few of which were situated over the shallow water on the edge of the beach. In the center of the village was a small fountain, spouting water high up before it crashed down all around the village center. 

Luna quickly grew bored and decided to start walking back in the direction of home, before she was stopped by the young man, “Where are you going Lu?” 

“I’m bored! Let’s just go home.” 

“No, look over there,” he said, pointing at a cobblestone fence between two trees, with a gate in the center, “that’s a park, right?” 

“I mean, yeah… Why?” 

“I don’t know, I just smelled something and it’s coming from over there I think.” 

“Oh, that smell! It’s the roses that line the entire path from that gate back around to the beachfront,” she said, pointing away from the entrance and behind some houses. 

“It just… Smelled familiar…” he said. 

“Really? Maybe you grew up around roses, or you could’ve worked in a flower shop?” 

“I don’t know, but I really want to go in there… Can we?” 

“Uh, yeah, I’m pretty sure that we can. It is almost four, though, let’s not take too long, I have some stuff to do back at home.” 

“Sure, c’mon,” he responded, pulling her by the hand into the park. 

“W-wait!” she squealed, but her plea felt on deaf ears, he pulled her aggressively into the park. Once they were inside, he let go of her hand and stopped dead, he took a big whiff of air and let it out slowly. 

“I’ve definitely smelled that before,” he whispered. 

“Well, I take it that you can’t remember where?” 

“No…” he said, shoulders slumping. 

“Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out, Blake will come back in a few months, and I’ll keep trying to get Ilia to communicate with her in the meantime. I’m determined to get you back to the life you had!” 

“But what if I didn’t have a life?” 

“Of course you-” 

“Don’t get me wrong… I’m sure now that I had a life before this… But what if that life wasn’t the life I wanted? What if the reason I was a prisoner was because she knew I had nothing left to live for? I don’t want to find out about my past life if it was something I’d never want to go back to.” 

“How long have you been thinking this?” 

“Just today, honestly.” 

“Your life had to have been worth living,” she paused, not wanting to call him Knight, “Most of the other people that Salem took were important people in some way, she wanted to extort everything and everyone, you had to be no different!” 

“If you say so…” he mumbled, turning away from her, surprised that the previous comment actually made him feel a little better. 

She put her hand on his chin and turned it towards her, “I do say so,” she whispered soothingly. He smiled at that, and squeezed his eyes shut. 

“I don’t even know my name…” he said, almost crying, “I see you fighting the urge to call me Knight every time we talk.” 

“Why don’t you make up a name? At least until we figure out your real name…” 

“What could my name be? I wouldn’t even know how to begin naming myself!” 

“Well, I have an idea…” 

“Yeah?” 

“How about Miles?” 

“Why Miles?” 

“It means Knight in an old dead language!” 

“Fuck off!” 

“Haha! Just kidding, I think Simon might fit! 

“Hmm, Nope” 

“Shoji?” 

“Nah” 

“August?” 

“Nuh-uh” 

“Edward?” 

“No!” 

“June?” 

“Wait.” 

“Mike?” 

“No, wai-” 

“Kaseto?” 

“Stop!” 

“What? What’s up?” 

“June!” 

“Really? I was just kinda joking with that one… It’s kind of a girl’s name dontcha think?” 

“Well, how can it be less feminine, then?” 

“Don’t get me wrong! It’s fine if you want it, I’ve just never met a dude named June before!” 

“Hmm. I kinda like it… What do you think? Try it out on me!” 

“Alright! Hey Juuuunnnee, what’s up, Juunnnne?” Luna said, letting sarcasm leech into the name. 

“Y’know, you could take this a little seriously…” he said, an edge of impatience in his tone. 

“Right, right, sorry! Ahem,” she paused to take a deep breath, “Hey, How have you been June?” 

“I’ve been alright Lu!” he said excitedly, “Yeah, I think I really like that one!” 

“You sure about it June? Actually, yeah… It kinda fits!” 

Luna looked around and saw that several people were staring at the two, whether or not they had heard their topic of conversation, she realized that they were standing in a very awkward manner. She yelped and pulled away from June, realizing she was still holding his hand and chin, she let go of both at the same time. Her face was on fire, and she looked away from June while she tried to settle her heart rate. 

“What’s wrong Luna?” June asked, trying to look into her face which she had turned downward. 

“N-nothing!” She said, flicking her eyes around to the people that had begun to snicker. 

June noticed for the first time, all the people that were looking at them, he giggled awkwardly and grabbed Luna’s hand, which tried to hide her face, “Hey,” he said softly, positing for her attention. 

“W-wha-” but she was interrupted by a peck on the cheek. 

“Don’t worry about all of them. C’mon, let’s go back home,” he said, pulling her gently back in the direction of the compound. The walk there was silent, Luna trailed behind June and racked her mind to figure out why he had kissed her, albeit just a quick peck on the cheek. An occasional glance at him seemed to show that he hadn’t thought very much of the surprisingly intimate thing he had done, and it disheartened her quite a bit. 

Eventually, he broke the silence, “So, what’s on your mind Lu?” 

“Eh? Oh, um, I was just wondering, y’know… About… Uh, why did you… Kiss me?” 

“Why?” he said thoughtfully, “I guess I don’t really know why I did it, it just felt like the right thing to do… Like, I don’t know, I could have also hugged you I suppose, but the kiss was quicker,” he said, before turning back to see where he was walking. 

“Really? It just felt like the right thing to do?” 

“Yeah, like you needed some reassurance that I was there for you. You don’t have to deal with people snickering and whispering about you all on your own y’know?” He said, stopping and reaching out for her hand. She pulled it back quickly. 

“That was a really intimate thing to do June, you don’t usually go around giving people a kiss on the cheek like that.” 

“Then when would you kiss someone? If not when you’re trying to reassure them, then when?” 

“I mean, of course you can kiss someone when you’re trying to reassure them, but usually you have to be closer than just friends, like, I don’t know, usually when you’re involved with someone.” 

“Aren’t we involved together?” 

“WHAT?” she shouted. 

“Yeah, right? I mean, I don’t think I’m leaving here for a while, I think we’ll be pretty involved with each other while I’m here right?” 

“Well yeah, but I didn’t mean like that! Don’t try and tell me that you honestly don’t know what it means when two people are involved, like, romantically!” 

“Oh, well, I-I guess I didn’t really think about that, I never actually thought of a kiss as romantic though… I just thought it was like a hug…” 

“Yeah… No, it kinda has more connotations than that, on the cheek it’s more about endearment, or even a greeting for some people!” 

“So not always romantic?” 

“No, but usually not a reassurance between friends like us,” she said, twirling her fingers now. 

“Well…” he began, “What if we were more involved?” he said, emphasizing the word ‘involved’ awkwardly. 

“What?” she said, freezing up. 

“Like, romantically? I mean, you technically know everything about me, right? And I figure that you could tell me everything about you, right? Then it wouldn’t be weird when I kiss you and stuff.” 

“Do… Do you want to kiss me more?” she asked, a little tremble in her voice. 

“If it’s alright with you, of course…” June replied meekly. 

She didn’t say anything, instead, she placed her hands on his face, pulling him in to kiss him on the cheek. She pulled away and smiled sheepishly at him, “Let’s just see where things go, yeah?” 

“Yeah,” he said, a goofy smile plastered on his face. 

***

“Yeah?” Ruby asked, turning to face Weiss. 

“Well, since I’m going back home tomorrow, I was wondering if you wanted to have dinner with me.” 

Ruby looked thoughtful, and she smiled widely before answering, “Sure, why not?” 

The two shared a laugh and left the hotel room, passing Yang on the way down. 

“Where are you two lovebirds going?” she teased, receiving a flushed glare from Weiss. Ruby just smiled and put her arm around Weiss’s waist. 

“R-Ruby?” Weiss sounded shocked. 

“We’re going to dinner!” Ruby said, pulling Weiss with her as she made to exit the building. 

“Haaavvee fuuuunn!” Yang mused, heading up to the room. 

Outside, Weiss pulled away from Ruby, genuinely surprised at what had just happened, but before she could say anything, Ruby grabbed her hand and looked soulfully into her eyes. All Weiss could see, was sadness, and she knew where that sadness was coming from. Weiss understood what Ruby was doing now, she finally decided to move on, and she was letting her know it through her beautiful silver eyes. 

“Okay,” she said simply, squeezing Ruby’s hand and pulling her gently down the street. 

***

“Okay?” Luna asked, readjusting her pose while she looked at June. 

“Yup, keep going!” he said, the tiredness of his voice becoming more apparent by the second. 

“Mmm, okay…” she hesitated. Then she rushed him. 

“I gotcha!” he shouted, grabbing her by the waist as she got close to him. He lifted her up and held her as she posed gracefully in his grasp. A minute later, she was back on her feet and June was sitting on a bench. 

“You know that there are other dances we can do, right?” she said as she sat down next to June. 

“Of course, but this one is the most impressive!” 

“Not if you can’t make it through the whole thing without passing out at the end…” she said as she rubbed his back. 

“I’ll get it by the time the party happens.” 

“I’m sure you will June, wanna try again? Or we could go out for a walk?” 

June perked up at that, “sure, lemme just take a shower!” he said, running to his new room that he received the week before, after he had gone to find Blake at the village. In the shower, he became victim to his seemingly infinite thoughts, which always revolved around his amnesia, and the fear that he may never figure out who he was. It was cruel of his mind to keep bringing up the fact that for almost two weeks since he woke up, he had heard no word that anyone had even been looking for someone that matched his description; the fear of not remembering was almost as bad as remembering and realizing that no one would have cared anyway. 

Luna walked back across the hall to June’s room after heading to her own to change. She no longer wore the red robes of the WFE and opted instead to wear a black skirt with her favorite blue sleeveless top. Her shoes were equally black flats and were probably the most comfortable shoes she owned. As she walked up to the door, June walked out wearing a light blue plaid button up shirt, with the top two buttons undone, revealing the white shirt underneath. His pants were just another pair of jeans and his shoes looked new, as they should considering he had bought them just a couple days ago. He looked tired, but he smiled full force at her, making her feel warmer like he had a miniature sun powering his smile. 

“Hey, you ready to go Lu?” he said, walking up to her. 

“Yeah, you?” 

“Yup, let’s go, have a place in mind?” 

“Let’s walk to the station, I want to go to a sister village of a bigger one near Mistral.” 

“Aren’t they a little far apart to be sister villages? Like it’s almost on the other side of the continent!” 

“Yeah, but they have direct airships from here to there, the citizens of both are offered really cheap travel between the two. A lot of shopkeepers have twin shops in both as well!” 

“That actually sounds kind of cool!” 

“Yup, the village here is called Solarosa, and the twin is called Ferrarosa! I think it’s super cute how their names are so similar! June? Hey, June?” Luna stopped when she noticed that June had stopped, staring off into space, “What’s wrong?” 

“That name… Fer-Ferra…” 

“Ferrarosa?” she completed his thought. 

“Yes!” he shouted, moving towards her again, “I know that name! Well, I don’t KNOW it, but it sounds very familiar! We have to go! I’m sure I’ll remember things if I go 

there, I have to!” 

“I-I mean, yeah. We can definitely go there, do you want to go like, right now?” she asked, letting a little of her disappointment leak into her voice. 

“No, of course not! I just think we should go at some point, right now I want to hang out with you!” He replied, grabbing her by the shoulders and flashing that bright smile that she enjoyed so much. 

“Okay!” she said, happier than she had been when they began. 

The journey to Solarosa was a fun one, June would point out something he had never seen near the compound and Luna would tell him all about it, like a village built inside a giant fissure, whose only visible structure was a clock tower that showed five o’clock as they whizzed past in the train. Eventually June grew tired of asking about strange things he saw and decided to take a nap on Luna’s shoulder. She had no objections and happily listened to music on her scroll while they rode the last half hour to Solarosa. Once they were in the Solarosa station, Luna nudged June awake and made to stand up, but she heard June mutter something in his sleep. She tilted her head down and listened carefully and, sure enough, he said it again. 

“Ruuubbeees, just five more minutes…” 

“Who’s Rubes?” Luna asked the still sleeping boy, he blinked awake and smiled at her, obviously not having heard the question. 

“What?” he said, yawning and having a nice stretch before looking around at his surroundings, “are we at Solarosa?” 

“Y-yeah,” she said, a little curious, “hey June?” 

“Mm?” 

“Who’s Rubes?” 

He froze, once again staring out into the infinite nothingness that was his memory. This time, he frowned slightly, moving his lips as he mouthed ‘Rubes’ over and over, trying to get a feel for the name he had apparently said in his sleep. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he sighed and looked at Luna. 

“I don’t know who Rubes is, just like everything else though it sounds very familiar.” 

“Do you think it was a relative or something?” she said nervously, sort of hoping that whoever it was, that they weren’t romantically significant. 

“I dunno, is Rubes a boys name or a girls name?” 

“I don’t know, I’ve never met or heard of anyone named Rubes before, it could be short for something else though, like Ruben, Ruby, Rubius, Rubenheimer… Anything really.” 

“Huh, I think Rubius hit something in my memory, I’m not sure though.” 

“We’ll figure it out June! C’mon let’s go walk around for a bit and then we can have dinner at one of my favorite places!” 

“For sure! Hey, what time is it by the way?” 

“It’s just around six thirty, why?” 

“Oh man, so that was like a three hour journey huh?” 

“Well, including the walk yeah. C’mon, or else we’ll miss the last train out at ten!” 

“Ten? Isn’t that a little early?” 

“Well, yeah, but there’s other trains, just not back to Shallowpoint, so let’s hurry!” For the next few hours, Luna showed June the sights of the village, which was big enough that they may as well have called it a city. Many of the shops were filled to the brim with customers, and some even had lines that extended outside, Luna laughed as she pulled June along to a street with significantly less people than the others. Before June could even ask why the street was less populated, she told him about how much of a tourist trap the main avenue of the city was and that most people never came down this way. It looked like she was right, the few people that were here walked around in less of rush. 

“So people really don’t ever walk far enough to see this practically empty street full of other shops?” 

“You’d think that someone would eventually, but usually they stick to the main avenue and then go to Snow Park,” she said, looking around for a specific shop. 

“Snow Park?” 

“Yeah, it’s the park to the north of the city, pretty popular because of the grass, it’s pure white!” 

“Woah, that sounds awesome!” 

“Mhm, but we’re going somewhere even cooler! That’ll be a surprise for later though, right now we’re going to this super cute gift shop!” 

“Gift shop, huh?” 

“Oh yeah, you’ll see when we get there, it’s the best shop ever!” 

“Right,” June said skeptically. 

When they arrived at the shop, he was surprised to see that the it had a ridiculous selection of gifts, and the ones that stuck out the most were the candy bars that filled an entire wall of the store. They were arranged in a diagonal rainbow pattern and when one bar was pulled off the wall, another would be slid into place from behind the wall. June sat in awe, as Luna walked up to the wall and climbed the small ladder to reach a green bar near the top in the center of the wall. She returned with two candy bars and handed one to June, he looked at it confused for a moment until she opened hers and took a bite, rolling her eyes back as she savored it. When he unwrapped his bar and took a bite, he swore he could have died from how amazing it was. It consisted of the most delicious chocolate he’d had, with an amazing caramel center. He never thought that something so simple would taste as amazing as this. Luna must have guessed as much since she gave him a knowing smile. He didn’t appreciate the smug look on her face and pushed his hand against her face, pushing her back a couple of steps. 

“Hey!” she protested, giving him a playful shove before turning to pay for the candy. 

He chuckled softly as he waited for her to finish paying. When she was done, he saw she had two more bars of candy, these were purple. 

“Ooh, we get more?” he said, curious as to what flavor these would be. 

“No, I get more,” she said, twisting the hand that held the candy away from him. 

“Really?” he said, sounding genuinely distressed at the prospect of no more candy. 

“Of course not, here,” she said as she handed him his candy bar. 

They walked out of the store and Luna directed them South even further away from downtown Solarosa. June didn’t ask where they were going until he noticed that there were almost no buildings around anymore. The street was darkening and becoming more narrow as they walked, and it actually began to worry him. 

“Erm, Lu?” 

“Yeah?” 

“Where are we going?” 

“Oh, we’re going somewhere special!” she said ominously, she turned her face downward and he shivered at how it darkened when she did so. 

“Yeah, b-but where?” 

“Actually, we’re almost there, look,” she pointed. 

“What-” he stopped and stared at the sight before him. It was a park, and although that in itself wasn’t awe inspiring, the fact that it was situated at the base of a cliff was. In the far end of the park, was a frozen waterfall that fell from the top of the cliff, several trees growing out of the cliff face and around the base of the waterfall. At the base, a fence surrounded the crystal clear ice lake formed by the waterfall. The grass here was also snow white, but the trees were also white, unlike Snow Park to the North. Luna walked over in the direction of the waterfall and disappeared behind some tall hedges, June followed and was shocked to see that the park wasn’t just situated at the base of one cliff, but it was on a cliff all its own. She sat on a bench that looked over the edge, and June joined her. A few kids leaned against the wooden fence that bordered the edge of the cliff and turned to look at the couple before quickly turning back to whatever they had been doing. 

“Hey June?” Luna said after a few minutes of silence., leaning her head on his shoulder. 

“Mmm?” he responded, leaning his head on hers. 

“You’re my best friend,” she whispered as she closed her eyes. 

“You’re my best friend too,” he replied without skipping a beat. He reached out and held her hand, she took it happily and they both sighed happily. 

They sat there for a couple hours, enjoying the silence and occasional conversation, before returning to town and getting a hotel room for the night, forgetting completely about getting dinner. 

The room had only one bed and so they shared it that night, and in the morning, they woke up cuddled in each others warm embrace. Luna got out of bed and showered while June lay in bed refusing to get up. When Luna returned, she had to forcefully pull him out of bed, and then into the bathroom to shower. When they left, the owner gave them a sly smile, but Luna chose to ignore it. 

“Why’d he make that face?” June asked. 

“Because he thinks we did stuff last night,” she said simply. 

“Oh,” he said, pausing for a moment, “should we have done stuff?” 

Luna didn’t bother with a response and instead punched him on the arm. He laughed it off and they made their way to the station hand in hand.


End file.
